False Masks: Spectre
by Mandalorian Runescaper
Summary: A Mass Effect/SWTOR crossover. The sequel to False Masks, picking up two years after the first instalment. In a galaxy weakened by the horror that was the Reaper War, a new threat will arise. Our heroes won't be able to stop it alone this time. Human OC/quarian OC pairing and Male Shepard/Kasumi Goto pairing. Feedback is much appreciated! Original title: False Masks: Shadows
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Well, I'm back. I had lots of different ideas for this fic and honestly thought I'd go mad if I didn't pick one and start writing. As I said at the end of** _ **False Masks**_ **, my update rate is not going to be a chapter every few days going forwards. As much as I would like to be as quick as I was with that story, sadly I don't have the time currently.**

 **Please let me know what you think of this first chapter since this is a new story, and so I can incorporate any recommended changes going forward more readily than if I were half way through, for example. Also, if anyone has a preference regarding Shepard's love interest (I still haven't decided on who to pick) or anything else then please feel free to let me know!**

 **Reviews (since I uploaded the last chapter of** _ **False Masks**_ **,** **as I sadly couldn't respond in that story since that was my last update aside from any spelling/grammar checks and minor tweaks I may make in the future):**

 **deathcornfive: Thank you once again for all of your support. Grey Jedi? Not sure about that, but we'll see!**

 **Bob: And I loved writing it! I'm glad you found the first instalment engaging on its own merits as well as because it was Mass Effect and SWTOR themed. I'm currently unsure whether to go with either Kasumi or Tali, but you make some good points about both. As for EA and Bioware… I think I have one more chance left for them somewhere deep inside… but even so, what I've seen so far (Anthem) doesn't inspire the greatest confidence.**

 **Larry/Fernando: Thank you for your reviews regarding the first two chapters of** _ **False Masks**_ **. I would be seriously confused by the comments you put at the end of each one if I didn't know you were the same person in real life and also didn't know what you're like. I have the worst friends.**

 **Chapter 1: The Key**

Rassen pressed his back firmly to the side of the crate he was concealed behind as the armoured figure strolled past his hiding place. Breathing quietly so not to alert the man, the Jedi slowly peered around the large metal box. It had been two long and torturous years since he had found himself back in his galaxy, alone and with only a slight hope of returning to where he had spent what surprisingly had turned out be the best weeks of his life.

The weeks he had spent with her.

Rassen shook away any thought of silver eyes behind a mostly polarised light-blue visor. Any distraction now could prove disastrous, especially since he was so close. Two years of looking for something, anything, had made him far more cautious than he had once been. As much as he wanted to see a certain quarian again, rushing into a confrontation and losing this first real opportunity was the last thing he desired. Hence why he was hiding from the armoured soldier who had wandered past where he was crouched, metal container of what he assumed were blaster parts shielding him from sight.

The man was likely a formidable warrior, but Rassen had little doubt that he could have fought him and emerged victorious. No, what worried him was that men and women like the one who had just passed him normally went around either individually or in small groups… aside from the rare locations they didn't. One he could certainly take. More than that… well that depended entirely on how many there were on the ship on which he had found himself.

The man he had hidden from, whose mostly blue armour reminded him of… her, continued past his position and joined several others of his kin about twenty metres away from his hiding place. All ten (including the newcomer) wore the same kind of armour; mainly painted blue but with some sections in white. Their protection was heavier and sturdier than his own, which was designed to avoid restricting movement as much as possible. These men and women preferred to weather attacks much more than he did.

One of the figures turned to greet the new arrival and Rassen remained deathly still. He was a distance away from the group and fortunately almost completely concealed by shadows. Nonetheless, any sudden movement would reveal his presence. His eyes focused on the second armoured figure as they began talking to the man he had hidden from, not that he could hear them. Still, the black T-shaped visor which dominated the centre of the speaker's helmet nearly caused him to search for the reassuring weight of the lightsaber still on his belt.

It had been surprising for him to learn that of all the people it could have been, it had been a group of Mandalorians who had discovered another route between galaxies. While they had an alliance of sorts with the Sith Empire, they were not known for being Force sensitive. Nonetheless, Zaressh had made it clear that he had devised his own method for crossing between one galaxy and another. Whatever the Mandalorians had discovered, presumably it could access the rift in the Force without the user being a Force sensitive.

He still didn't know how exactly they had discovered it or even what it was, but he had learned from a Republic Strategic Information Service report that he had… acquired, that one of the organisation's agents had been tailing a Mandalorian squad which had attempted to make a secret foray into Republic territory. If the agent's report was to be believed, then at some point the squad had one by one simply disappeared as though they had each activated a stealth field generator. The report had stood out though because the men and women in question had been on a small moon at the time, which held nothing of interest aside from a copious amount of snow. There had been no reason for them to have concealed themselves; hence the agent had suspected something else was going on.

Ever since reading the report, Rassen had spent his time attempting to locate the nearest group of Mandalorians to the one which had vanished. His efforts had borne fruit, and he had managed to board their small cruiser which lay just inside Sith space only a few hours ago. Despite his excitement at the knowledge that perhaps he was close to finding a way back to Shaela, Rassen had taken his time making his way through the ship in order to avoid being noticed. With there possibly being as many as hundreds of Mandalorians on board, he was massively outnumbered. Being caught at any point would result in a fight and he knew he didn't stand a chance against so many trained opponents. Anyway, he needed to discover if there were any clues relating to how the first group of Mandalorians had vanished.

The second Mandalorian finished speaking and stepped to one side, revealing an object that had been concealed behind them. Rassen leaned forward slightly at seeing a small artefact of some kind sitting on a podium. The device was shaped like a cube in the middle, but two handles shaped like spikes jutted out from it, one each from the left and right sides. As he watched, the second Mandalorian turned away from the first and moved to the podium before gently gripping the two handles of the strange object. The figure vanished almost instantly; no light, no sound, and no fanfare. As much as Rassen had been transported from one galaxy to another but never seen it happen to another person, what had just occurred fit with what little he knew.

 _Just a bit longer now, Shaela. I just need to wait for the last of this group to go and then I'll have my chance._

Rassen felt a familiar pang of worry. He had experienced it many times before, but it had only grown more frequent as the days had stretched into weeks, months, and now finally years. Was Shaela all right? He somehow knew the quarian would have found a way off of Querra, but had she completed her Pilgrimage successfully? He had wanted to help her with that, despite the difficulties that would have appeared once she had returned to her people's Migrant Fleet.

 _You failed her by not being there for her when she was for you. We both know it, Rassen._

The Jedi's features contorted into a snarl beneath his hood. Whenever he had a depressing thought now, it always seemed like Zaressh was there, taunting him. A side-effect of the Force bond it seemed; a part of the Sith would always be with him as a result of the forced joining. Rassen ignored the voice so he could concentrate, and slowly adjusted his position; eyes fixed on the object as the last Mandalorian touched it and vanished. For the first time, the device emitted a low whine and shuddered slightly before stilling. Rassen frowned at that. He hoped it wasn't a bad sign.

Glancing around himself carefully, the Jedi slowly extended a hand and the device rose gracefully from its pedestal to drift over towards him. Rassen gently caught it in his gloved palms but avoided touching the handles, slowly turning it over as he did so. The object seemed to be made of metal, but it was unlike any metal he had ever seen. The craftsmanship was too perfect for it to have been handmade, but somehow he knew that it wasn't from a factory either. It just seemed… otherworldly, for lack of a better term.

The Jedi continued to slowly rotate the device in his hands, marvelling at its smooth grey texture. It was beautiful in an eerie way, but a part of him couldn't wait to be rid of it. Wherever it was from, it made him feel… uneasy. Rassen glanced at the chronometer on his wrist and felt his heart stop as he realised he had been crouching while holding the device for more than ten minutes. The object suddenly let out the same whine as before and shuddered before stilling in his palms. He almost dropped it in surprise before managing to catch the device by its strange handles.

"Recharge complete, do you require transportation?"

Rassen jumped at the voice that cut through the silence which had followed the object's strange behaviour. The Jedi reached out with his senses as he looked hurriedly around him, frowning upon noticing that no one was nearby. After a few moments, the same voice spoke again and this time he realised in surprise that it was coming from the device he still cradled in his hands.

"Recharge complete, do you require transportation?"

There was a strange accent to the voice, one he hadn't heard in either this galaxy or… or Shaela's. Rassen swallowed as thoughts of the quarian sprang unbidden to his mind once more. Was she well? Did she still believe he was out there somewhere trying to find his way back to her?

The sudden noise of heavy footsteps caused him to freeze as a Mandalorian marched past his hiding place, several others right behind. Rassen counted them as they passed. Ten in total… just like the first group. He quickly glanced down at the object in his hands. Whatever it was, it seemed like it could only transport a set number of people before it needed a cooldown period. This second group of Mandalorians was of equal number to the last and was headed in the same direction. They were transporting themselves one group at a time, presumably to Shaela's galaxy. The group the SIS agent had observed must have been from the cruiser and served as a test group, after which the Mandalorians had moved the device to their ship for easier access. He now knew how they were transporting themselves. So many questions remained though; why were they doing it and how had they discovered it in the first place?

The lead Mandalorian stopped in surprise midway between Rassen and the empty pedestal upon noticing the device was missing, and quickly gestured for the troops behind him to spread out. Mandalorians were renowned as warriors and bounty hunters for a reason. They would find him in moments thanks to their organisation, and somehow Rassen doubted that he could use the Force to trick all of them at once. Fighting was also out of the question as even assuming he defeated all ten of them, he doubted he could do so quietly. The leader was likely already reporting to his superior anyway, meaning everyone on board the vessel knew they had a stowaway.

"Recharge complete, do you require transportation?"

Rassen winced, but the nearest Mandalorian, perhaps five metres away and barely concealed from his sight by another large crate took no notice of it. His eyes widened in surprise. The voice was inside his head. The thing, whatever it was could communicate with him, was communicating with him. Could it be doing so through the Force? That would make sense as the announcement had easily been loud enough for the Mandalorians around him to hear. It could transport non-Force users, so was it the device itself which provided the link to the rift within the Force which made travel between two galaxies possible?

The nearest Mandalorian was only two metres away now, and would walk around the crate shielding Rassen from his vision in a matter of seconds. The Jedi closed his eyes slowly as the device repeated its announcement for a fourth time. He couldn't fight his way off the ship. He also couldn't sneak off it now they had noticed him. They would have sealed all bulkheads leading to the escape pods and the hangers. The device in his hands would transport him, but where to? For all he knew it might take him to a different galaxy to Shaela's. Rassen opened his eyes. He only had one option he realised, the Mandalorian's shadow appearing in front of him. The ten Mandalorians who had transported themselves mere minutes ago hadn't said anything to activate the device, meaning it presumably responded to thought orders rather than spoken words.

 _Yes. I need you to transport me._

The Jedi's vision blurred at the edges and then seemed to focus on an infinitesimally small point somewhere in the distance before everything went black.

* * *

"Fantastic work today, Shaela. You should be ready to take your next exam on salarian biology within a couple of weeks at most."

Shaela nodded politely to her teacher. "Thank you, Matriarch Wessa." The asari was old even by the standards of her species; praise from her was something you only received when you deserved it.

 _So why don't I feel happy?_

The purple skinned asari smiled sadly at her with wisdom only attained through centuries of life. "You're thinking about him again, aren't you child?"

She couldn't help feeling guilty as she shook herself out of her thoughts. "I'm sorry, Matriarch, I just…"

"There is no need to apologise." The sometimes stern but always kind woman leaned forward from where she sat opposite Shaela to pat the quarian's hand gently. "Losing someone you care for is always hard… no matter how old you get."

Shaela shook her head again. "I still don't know if I'm doing the right thing though. Rassen wanted to help me complete my Pilgrimage; he knew I wanted to become a doctor. I know he would have wanted me to do what I'm doing now; helping people. Knowing that he could still be out there somewhere though, looking for a way back to me…"

"You can't help but feel you should be doing the same."

The quarian slammed a fist against her thigh in frustration. "Yes. I tried, keelah I tried to find him. I had no idea where to start though, and nothing I could think of got me any closer. When the credits ran out I tried to find a job so I could save up more before continuing. Back then nobody trusted quarians though. There is still a degree of that of course, but it was worse then. By the time I even managed to get a job, the order went out for all quarians to return to the Flotilla."

The asari withdrew her hand and laced her fingers together in her lap. "Then," she murmured softly, "there were the Reapers."

Shaela shuddered at the memories that word conjured up. She had seen plenty of news reports about the horrors that had terrorised the galaxy. Their weapons had cut though anything in their path like it was made of paper, that terrible droning bugle signalling the loss of hundreds or even thousands of lives as each shot meant the destruction of another ship. They had won in the end, a red light seeming to cover everything as the Reapers suddenly… stopped. Shaela hadn't fought during the war, having instead spent its duration initially with the Fleet and once it had been reclaimed, Rannoch. She had volunteered to help care for those wounded during the fighting against the geth and then of course the Reapers. With quarian immune systems being what they were then and still were to a large extent, there had been so many injured. Once her people had joined the fight against the Reapers it had only gotten worse, with wounded from every race being transported to Rannoch and other worlds that weren't under the control of the monstrosities that had taken so many lives. No matter how hard she and so many others had tried, they hadn't been able to save everyone.

After the war there had been so much that needed to be done and they still weren't finished now even months later. Whole systems had been devastated. The batarians would likely never recover. So many had been outright killed or indoctrinated that they were finished as a serious power. Despite her personal experience with the species, Shaela had never wanted anything like that to happen to them. Quarians knew full well what it was like to be on the brink of extinction.

She had continued to help out as best she could with the wounded as the galaxy slowly pulled itself back together. Even though she had been here for months though, it still hadn't sunk in fully that she was on Rannoch. Just thinking that she was on the world where her species had begun still felt strange. After everything they had endured, her people were home. Incredibly, her family had all survived the war; her mother, father, and Rissel. She had met Matriarch Wessa a few days after the fighting had ended when the latter had come to Rannoch. The asari had once been bonded to a quarian and had come to their home world as soon as she could, in order to revisit the home of her now deceased lover and offer her help as a healer. Once the two of them had met, the asari had begun tutoring her on various medical matters relating to the different races, currently they were on salarians. Before that, Shaela's experience had been limited to applying medi-gel and comforting patients… and of course the hours she and Rassen had spent researching the different races of the Milky Way. She still did both of course, but with someone as experienced as Wessa teaching her it really looked like she could become a doctor someday. Yet despite everything, something was still missing.

Naturally that something was the topic of their conversation.

"The Reapers and then the rebuilding," she answered. "I wanted to go back to searching for him, but like before the war I had no idea where to start, I still haven't. I feel like I'm helping people here and I'm doing what I think he would have wanted, but I just wish I could also keep looking for him."

The asari smiled again, though this time she looked markedly happier. "From what you've told me about him, he isn't the kind to give up."

The quarian smiled in return, mind flashing back to those precious weeks they had spent together. The two of them had always had something to worry about, but they had also had each other. Not knowing if she would ever see Rassen again hurt, but the old asari always seemed to give her hope that she would eventually.

"He's not," she replied, "but then neither am I."

Wessa's smile widened. "How true." Her demeanour then turned serious. "I know your family, well parents at least, think you need to let go. The way you talk about him and your time together though, I know you'll see each other again. A thousand years of experience tells me it's possible. Goddess knows how, but it is. Keep that hope alive, Shaela, and you'll see each other again."

The quarian nodded determinedly. "I will," she whispered, "I know I haven't told you much about him and everything that happened to us in the time we've known each other, but I promise I will once he's back."

The Matriarch was grinning now. "You once said that I wouldn't believe it unless I saw proof. What little you've told me seems like it would make for one amazing story. I can't wait to hear it while the two of you complete each other's sentences." Shaela nodded slowly, barely listening and feeling a pang of sadness. As she had begun making her way out of the boulder field on the day everything had changed, she had tried to reach out to the Force, hoping she could maybe find some trace of Rassen. She hadn't been able to feel the familiar warmth of the Force despite her previous ease at doing so; it was like the power was lost to her. She still didn't know why she couldn't feel it, but hoped that if, no when Rassen returned, she would be able to access it once more. Shaking off that line of thought upon noticing the asari had continued to grin at her, Shaela scowled, but there was a hint of playfulness present.

"I told you that only happened once!"

* * *

Rassen groaned quietly as he slowly opened his eyes and then climbed painfully to his feet. He looked around himself, head turning left and then right as he searched for anything familiar. The unpainted metal interior of the Mandalorians' ship was gone, replaced by short green grass which waved gently in a slight breeze. He currently stood on top of a small hill in what appeared to be a field of some kind. The Jedi closed his eyes for a moment, savouring the feeling of the breeze after his time on board the cruiser. The air there had been stagnant, a common trait as far as star ships were concerned. As much as he enjoyed the sensation of cool air against his face, he couldn't help but feel slightly guilty. Not everyone was able to feel something as simple-

Rassen's eyes snapped open and he glanced around to his left and right again, this time with a hint of panic. Was he back? Had the device worked as he had hoped? Or was he in a different galaxy entirely? He took a deep breath and tried to organise his thoughts. He had no reason to assume anything had gone wrong. Waking up in a new location was certainly familiar. He needed to figure out where he was. Was the world on which he found himself inhabited?

A moan, so quiet that he almost missed it, suddenly cut through his thoughts, and Rassen's hand dropped to his lightsaber. The sound had come from behind him somewhere. The Jedi turned around and tried to make his way down the hill, only to freeze in surprise at the sight below him.

A Mandalorian was attempting to climb to her feet, a blaster pistol held loosely in one hand as she did so. The woman groaned again as she raised her head to glance at him from where he stood above and in front of her. She froze, and Rassen could practically see her eyes dart from one part of his body to the next. The armour he wore, white but faded, built to allow for some protection without sacrificing mobility. The brown cloak he wore over it, hood causing most of his facial features to be in shadow. Her eyes finally came to rest on the lightsaber, which his hand still rested next to.

Her weapon was suddenly pointed between his eyes, and the familiar scream made by a blaster bolt cut through the air. He drew his lightsaber and raised it into the path of the scarlet projectile, sending the bolt crashing into the woman's stomach. The Mandalorian slammed to the ground as her chest plate absorbed the impact, blackening where the red energy had seared it.

Rassen sprinted forward and swept his lightsaber diagonally at the downed figure, cutting through her weapon effortlessly. The Mandalorian stared in shock as the end of her blaster sparked uselessly and she began crawling backwards away from him, trying to put distance between them. Rassen began to follow, before then noticing something that caused him to pause.

The Mandalorian was radiating fear.

Mandalorians made for some of the best soldiers in his galaxy but even so, fear was never something that could entirely be eradicated from one's mind. Everyone could feel fear under the right circumstances. Even a trained warrior could show it. A slight shaking to a hand as it went for a weapon, a note of hesitation in a battle cry, or even a miss while aiming at a motionless target. That was fear which was mostly controlled; the fear of a person who was experienced and had accepted that someday they would die, even if they wanted to avoid death at all costs.

That wasn't the kind of fear he sensed from the woman who had just tried to kill him.

The Mandalorian attempted to rise, only to fall back down as one foot slipped on the grass, causing her to land heavily on her back. Rassen watched her cautiously as the woman raised one hand as though it could keep him away while she tried to stammer out an apology.

"I-I didn't, I-I had orders and I… please." The Mandalorian stared up at him desperately as he stood unmoving only a few steps away, staring back at her unflinchingly.

 _The woman slowly backed away from him, hands raised in a non-threatening manner, pleading softly in her unfamiliar language. There was a musical lilt present to her words, along with a slight distortion from speaking through a helmet._

She had tried to kill him. He had spent two years trying to find a way back to Shaela and she had tried to stop him when as far as he knew, he was very close. She had attacked first, would have killed him if not for the speed of his reaction. Zaressh's voice returned, the Sith's sneer seeming to fill his mind.

 _Kill her, Rassen. She tried to kill you first and nearly stopped you from seeing your precious little alien again._

The mention of Shaela seemed to trigger something right at the edge of his senses, and Rassen quickly shook his head in an attempt to avoid sinking into another memory.

 _Zaressh was beaten. Agony seemed to course through every muscle of his body as a result of the Force lightning, but he was alive. More importantly, so was she. He held the quarian tightly and Shaela held onto him desperately in return. Her words caused relief to flood through him as she rejected the darkness that could have consumed her._

" _I need… I need you to stay with me, Rassen. I don't… I don't want to become like him."_

He shook his head even harder at the next memory, but it was to no avail.

 _Invisible hands wrenched him away from his master and rolled him onto his back to see the Sith standing over him, a dark spectre occasionally illuminated by the lightning above._

The Mandalorian attempt to rise to her feet again, only to collapse back down once more in her panic to get away from him. Staring at her visor for any sign of betrayal, Rassen deactivated his lightsaber and slowly returned to his belt. He then crouched where he was, keeping a few metres away from the woman, who had now begun sobbing. The Jedi calmly lowered his hood, but kept his expression neutral as he did so. Zaressh's voice raged at his actions.

 _Kill her! She deserves it, doesn't she? She is weak and such people should perish once they challenge the might of those who are greater-_

Rassen ignored the voice and instead focused on the woman across from him, nodding slowly as she attempted to sit up. Once she had done so, he spoke, ensuring his voice was calm, but carried a hint of steel.

"I do not want to kill you. Answer my questions truthfully and I will not have to."

The woman nodded fearfully, keeping her eyes on his face for any sign of deceit as she did so. Rassen examined her more closely. The bulky armour she wore gave little away, but her behaviour indicated she was very inexperienced. If that were the case though then why had she been one of the ones transported? More to the point, what was this group of Mandalorians planning that had motivated them to find a way to wherever they were and also required dozens, perhaps even hundreds of them? Rassen had no idea, but he fully intended to find out.

He stared straight into the woman's visor, imagining he could see her eyes despite the one-way material which prevented him from doing so. There could be any number of other Mandalorians nearby, but before he started moving he needed to know one thing in particular. In a tone of voice that brokered no argument, he asked his first but most important question.

"Where are we?"


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Well this chapter took longer to get out than normal. Rest assured that I still have plenty of interest in this story; it's just a sad truth that the summer holidays are long gone. You may have noticed that the tags for this story have changed slightly. Specifically, I have now added Kasumi Goto and paired her with Shepard. There aren't many Kasumi heavy stories on the site and so I feel like that's something I can rectify. Don't get me wrong, I love Tali, Liara, etc as much as anyone, but I like the idea of doing something a little different than picking one of the series more popular characters. Maybe in the future I'll write one revolving around Tali and Shepard if enough people are interested.**

 **Reviews:**

 **AnarionRising27: I seem to have an addiction. Please send help! Ahem, thank you for your support. We'll have to see about all of those things you mentioned won't we? I won't say any more for now…**

 **deathcornfive: That's great to hear! If people stick around then I will too.**

 **Grreeb: I take it you liked the first chapter? I'm not sure if the squeal was because of that or just because you thought it would be funny. Regardless, thanks for leaving a review.**

 **Chapter 2: Know Your Enemy**

Rassen glared expressionlessly at the Mandalorian still lying on the ground as he waited for her to answer his question. He had no doubt that her fear of him and inexperience regarding combat were genuine, but even so he had no intention of taking his eyes off of her for a moment. He somehow doubted that she had chosen to join a society of warriors with a more than chequered past with only good intentions in mind. That and she had just tried to kill him, even if it could be argued that she had been afraid that he would attack her first. After a few moments of silence the Mandalorian finally responded.

"I… I don't know," she answered hesitantly.

 _She's lying._

Rassen ignored the taunting voice of Zaressh, which only seemed to have grown louder since he had awoken. It wasn't telling him anything he didn't already know; the Mandalorian was obviously lying, judging by her hesitation. He allowed a small amount of his anger to slip through his neutral façade, causing the woman to tremble almost imperceptibly.

"I do not believe you. Where are we?"

"I'm n-not sure."

"So you do have an idea?"

The woman went silent again and Rassen let even more of his anger bleed through. Two years ago he would have tried to remain calm in this kind of situation. This however, was not two years ago. Before he could press her further though, the Mandalorian muttered something so quietly that he almost missed it.

"Say that again," he ordered, gaze never wavering.

The woman seemed to muster enough courage to look directly into his eyes as she answered him. "I-I think… I heard one of the others mention something called Horizon. I don't… maybe that's what this world is called?"

Rassen let out a low growl before allowing one hand to move towards his lightsaber. "Keep talking," he murmured, frustration only growing the longer he was kept waiting for the answer he wanted. "I need more than that. Did you just blindly do as you were told or were you informed of anything actually useful?"

The Mandalorian had begun to scramble away from him again as she started to blurt out whatever came into her mind in an attempt to stem the tide of his anger. "I-I wasn't… I only just joined up and they… something about different species and I think someone mentioned something called a turian and then-"

 _Turians._

Rassen's experience with members of that species had been mixed to say the least. Some such as the food vendor on Omega who had attacked him and Shaela had proven to be violent, racist and most of all murderous. On the other hand, the receptionist on Querra had been kind towards the two of them and had approved of them being together… even if she had made it very clear that he should look after Shaela as well as she had looked after him.

 _And you are doing a fantastic job of that aren't you, Rassen?_

The Jedi pushed away that particular line of thought, concentrating instead on the knowledge that there was at least some evidence he was closer to Shaela than he had been in just over two years. He needed to be sure though. Just one species name could be a fluke, couldn't it? Humans existed in both his galaxy and Shaela's. Surely then, couldn't turians too exist in his own in some obscure area of space which had remained undiscovered by the Republic?

"Were there any other strange names that you noticed?" He interrupted, causing the Mandalorian to stop mid-sentence, where she had begun rambling about what she thought a turian could possibly be.

Her voice was still hesitant, but now tinged with a little bit of hope. "I think when I walked past two of the officers talking, one of them mentioned something about wanting to see an 'asarti' or a 'saylorian' up close, but I-"

"Did they say that, or did they actually mention that they wanted to see either an _asari_ or a _salarian_?"

"Um, what you said."

Rassen swallowed slightly, disbelieving. He was back. Whatever the bizarre device had been, somehow it had taken him back. He had hoped of course, but now that it had happened it almost didn't feel real. Shaela was still out there somewhere, but now she seemed reachable, even though Force knew how many lightyears still separated them. A cough tore him out of his thoughts as he saw the Mandalorian, still on her back, looking up at him from where he was crouched across from her.

"So… you'll let me go now right? I answered your questions, a-and I haven't tried anything else."

Rassen grimaced. She was absolutely right and despite Zaressh's voice in his head urging him to kill her, which was beginning to give him a headache at this point; he had no intention of doing so. On the other hand letting a Mandalorian, even one such as this, wonder around a new galaxy on her own with the technology she was carrying could have dire ramifications. He had other questions he needed answering anyway. She had been transported to the same location as him and had woken up at almost the same time, indicating that she had either been a member of the group who had used the device immediately before him, or possibly the one after that. Regardless, there were certainly other Mandalorians in this galaxy, possibly hundreds in total. As much as she was clearly ill-informed, she likely still knew a few things he didn't and Rassen needed as much information as he could get.

"No."

The Mandalorian blanched and finally managed to rise to her feet, only to freeze against her will when he extended a hand. Rassen stood up from where he had been crouching and walked over to her so that only a few inches separated them as he stared down into the blackness of the woman's visor before he continued.

"I have further questions. You will continue to answer them honestly and to the best of your ability. Hold nothing back and do not attempt to lie to me. I will be able to sense if you try. Do as I say and I will let you live as agreed."

After a moment of thought the woman nodded slowly. Rassen nodded once in return, still alert for any signs of aggression.

"You must have been given some orders before you arrived here. What were they?"

The woman opposite him seemed to swallow heavily, though it was hard to tell with the armour she wore. The Mandalorian slowly moved one hand to a pouch on her waist, causing Rassen to follow the movement with his eyes. She withdrew a small datapad from the pouch and switched it on before reading out what was written on the screen, holding it between them so he could see that she wasn't leaving anything out.

"Initial orders were for us to try and find one another once we touched… whatever that thing was. I think the same coordinates were provided for everyone, but I don't know how many have come through."

Rassen frowned at that. He sensed no attempt to deceive him, which meant that woman opposite him was telling the truth, or at least as close to the truth as she could. She obviously had only been told the minimum amount of information possible; her superiors clearly wanted to keep whatever they were planning as secret as they could. If she was right that all of the Mandalorians who had so far made the journey were gathering in one location though, then he couldn't risk going there. Potentially hundreds of soldiers, far better trained than the one he had captured would be there and if noticed he would give up the only major advantage he possessed against such numbers; the element of surprise. The Mandalorians would likely know he had made the trip with them since he had been discovered, but given that he hadn't seen any aside from the one in front of him, they were probably unaware of his current location. Rassen frowned at a sudden realisation. Both he and Zaressh had been transported to roughly the same location; Omega, though to different parts of the station. If the same applied to whatever the object he had touched had been, then the other Mandalorians were probably on the same planet he was on, which explained why the coordinates looked to be not too far from their position. Presumably the Mandalorians were converging on it from every direction.

"When are you all supposed to arrive there?" He asked, continuing to keep an eye on the Mandalorian as he perused the datapad she still held between them.

"I-I think we were supposed to head there immediately. Once we'd regrouped, the plan was to move onto a second location. I don't know why though."

Rassen nodded in response as he examined the second marked point on the datapad. Around ten miles or so away from his current position as far as he could tell, lying around an hour to the west of the first, though the device didn't specify why the point was important. If he headed straight to the second location then perhaps he could beat the Mandalorians there and find whatever it was they were interested in while they were still regrouping. He looked back at the woman's visor. "Do you know anything else?" He asked, a small part of him feeling guilt at the way the woman's body language became more panicked as she tried to think of anything else which could be of use to him. After a moment she seemed to calm herself slightly with a deep breath, swallowing heavily.

"I d-don't Jedi. I'm sorry."

 _You got what you wanted. She is now a loose end, Rassen. You know what the safest thing to do is._

Rassen ignored Zaressh's goading. The Sith's voice had only rarely filled his mind in the more than two years he had been trying to find a way back, but it seemed like ever since touching the object which had brought him here it had become more frequent.

"Take your helmet off," he demanded, staring straight into the Mandalorian's visor. She hesitated before nodding and then pulled the heavy piece of armour from her head. Despite having his suspicions, Rassen still blinked in surprise at the woman's appearance. Blonde hair cut short caught the rays of Horizon's sun, causing it to glow softly. Green eyes, wide with fear stared into his own, seemingly begging for the mercy he had promised. The woman couldn't be older than twenty. She just looked _young_ for lack of a better expression. He himself wasn't even twenty-four, but with events of the past two years he felt a lot older than he should. As he examined the Mandalorian more closely he doubted she felt the same way. She had probably joined up wanting adventure or some kind of purpose to her life… which begged the question as to why a group of Mandalorians would recruit what was practically a child. Whatever they intended, it required numbers. More than they had readily available.

"I promised that I would let you go."

A tear ran down the woman's face. "You did," she responded hoarsely.

"And I keep my word."

 _You got what you wanted. Kill her!_

Rassen forced the voice from his mind once more, managing to conceal the struggle from the Mandalorian. He then waved a hand and the woman's eyes rolled up into her head before her legs sagged beneath her. Rassen caught her before she fell and gently lowered her to the ground. The Jedi stared down at the woman's now peaceful face with a deep sense of sadness, despite the aggression he had displayed towards her. Hopefully he would be able to find whatever had brought the Mandalorians here before she awoke and re-joined them. It would have been safer to kill her than let her return to the others or even to wipe some of her memories. Rassen had been on the receiving end of the latter though and was not willing to do that to another person. A lot had happened to him in the last two years, but not so much that he was willing to go that far.

 _You are absolutely right, a lot has happened. What will your precious little alien think when she finds out about that one particularly nasty incident?_

Once again, Rassen pushed away Zaressh's barb before turning away from the sleeping Mandalorian and began marching in the direction of the second location from the datapad. Fortunately, it was between him and the first. Unfortunately it was still several hours away, owing to the terrain and distance. It was too far for him to use the Force to augment his speed, particularly when he wasn't sure what he would find on the way. The woman behind him might well not be the only Mandalorian he encountered today and he didn't want to face any exhausted from running the distance, Force or no. Keeping his senses open for any signs of danger, Rassen kept a hand near his lightsaber as he made his way towards whatever lay at the second location from the datapad.

* * *

All in all it had been a good day's work, Kasumi reflected, resting her chin on her knees as she did so. She was currently perched on a small sofa in the cargo area of her ship, a gift from her current employer in order to help her carry out her work. With the galaxy still recovering from the Reaper War, the thief had unfortunately not had as many opportunities as she would have liked to test her skills. She was all for stealing from those who deserved it, but with virtually everyone contributing in some way to trying to repair the damage done by the Reapers, she had been far more careful when it came to picking her targets over the last few months than she had been before. She had always restricted herself to stealing from either the very rich or from large establishments such as museums, which had probably been for the best. Even though the Illusive Man had sent Shepard a dossier about her during the latter's mission against the Collectors, she doubted the Commander would have actually recruited her if she got her thrills at the expense of those who had very little wealth. Kasumi pressed her chin more firmly into her knees at the thought of the man who had managed to save them all.

Shepard.

It had been three months since the war had ended but the Commander was still listed as missing in action. The Alliance had yet to declare it, but everyone knew what that designation really meant.

Missing presumed dead.

None of Shepard's former squad mates believed he was gone. In the days immediately following the defeat of the Reapers they had all worked tirelessly to try and find him in the ruins of the Citadel as it floated almost serenely above the birthplace of humanity. One by one though they had all drifted away to try and fix whatever could be fixed. None of them had wanted to abandon the search but the galaxy needed all the help it could get. Worlds were devastated, most every race had been dealt a horrific blow by the Reapers' genocidal campaign, and while none of them had given up hope, they knew Shepard would have never wanted them to prioritise him at the cost of those he had spent so long trying to save.

Hence why she had gone back to what she excelled at.

For all the people who were giving everything to try and pull the galaxy back together, there were some who in spite of everything, were trying to profit out of the situation. Construction firms in particular knew that they could increase their prices because they knew they could get away with it. Planets everywhere desperately needed more housing since the Reapers had flattened whole cities with ease, but still some of those corporations were content to squeeze the survivors wherever they could. That of course was where she came in.

Kasumi felt no guilt at stealing information from the various CEOs and executives who had adopted such a heartless stance, and it felt good to know she was making a difference. Downloading the contents of a private terminal and sending it off to a friend who just so happened to be the most well-connected information broker in the business did wonders for persuading such individuals to reconsider their decisions. It also meant that as much as Kasumi was doing what she was best at, she was also making the galaxy a better place.

 _Heh. Guess you rubbed off on me the same as you did with everyone else, Shep._

As with everyone who knew Shepard as a person, Kasumi refused to entertain the notion that he was dead. He had already proved death couldn't hold him once, so why would it suddenly be able to now? That air of impossibility had surrounded the Commander the moment she had first laid eyes on him, and had only been confirmed when he had looked up at where she had been hiding in the rafters of Zakera Ward on the Citadel what felt like a lifetime ago. She closed her eyes as she recalled the memory.

* * *

The Commander turned to face her, broad frame moving with the kind of fluid grace that could only be honed from years on the battlefield. His eyes moved to bore into hers as he finished turning. Although he couldn't see it, her breath caught slightly as she saw John Shepard's face in person for the first time. Black hair cut short, the same colour as the slight stubble under his jaw and across the lower part of his face. His face had a rugged kind of handsomeness to it, giving the man the appearance of the seasoned veteran he was rather than the vid star version some of the Alliance's recruitment posters had given him. His eyes were a deep blue, contrasting with the glowing orange scars which were present in a few areas of his face. Yet it was Shepard's expression which caused her breath to hitch almost imperceptibly.

An eyebrow was raised and one corner of his mouth upturned in a smirk. The man's eyes seemed to glow slightly as she stared up at her, his expression equal parts impressed and amused. Kasumi felt her usual confidence fade for a moment at the look on the man's face.

Despite the myriad of differences she could spot right off the bat, Shepard's expression reminded her almost of-

 _No! Don't do that to yourself!_

Kasumi spoke before the image of Keiji could consume her thoughts.

"We should probably wrap this up. You look pretty silly standing there talking to an advertisement."

* * *

After that initial moment where their eyes had met she had tried everything to take her mind off of whatever it had been. She had spent some time hanging out with the other people Shepard had put together and had attempted to persuade herself that no matter what, she didn't have any interest in Commander Shepard. Whenever he had checked up on her as he did for all of his crew, she had made sure to keep her conversations with him short without appearing rude, hoping he wouldn't engage with her too much if at all possible. She had dropped a line about finding Jacob attractive at some point and hadn't entirely been lying. The former Corsair was certainly good-looking, but she didn't get that same jolt she had felt the first time she had looked into the Commander's eyes.

Despite her usual playful and assured demeanour, Kasumi had been afraid at what she had felt in that moment. It was too soon. Keiji was gone and she was just feeling lonely and more than a little lost right? It was normal to have a crush on Shepard; about half the galaxy did after all. What she felt hadn't meant anything.

But after he had helped her and the feeling grew stronger she had been so afraid that it had.

Shepard had helped her get Keiji's graybox back and then helped her find the strength to destroy it. He had been there when she was at her lowest point, but when she had encountered him on board the Citadel during the war she had failed to do the same. Oh she had agreed to help work on the Crucible, everyone had needed to do their part to try and save the galaxy. But she could have joined him again, been there for the Commander the way he had been for her when she had held Keiji's graybox and not known what to do. Perhaps if she had joined him then he wouldn't be missing right now…

Kasumi swallowed heavily as a lone tear slowly traced down one of her cheeks. She still didn't entirely know what she felt when she thought of the Commander, whether it was just respect tinged with attraction or something more. The only thing she was sure of was that whatever it was, it hadn't gone away. She shook her head and then jumped to her feet, trying to shake herself out of her misery. Another job well done, another step towards the galaxy healing. That was what mattered. Kasumi left the cargo bay of her small ship and entered the cockpit before sitting down at the controls and aiming her vessel at the system's mass relay. Liara probably had more people she needed dirt on. There was no time for worrying about something she still didn't understand.

* * *

Rassen had been walking for almost three hours and had still yet to see anything out of the ordinary. The ordinary in this case being gently rolling hills of the same short green grass as where he had first arrived. The terrain was insufficient to conceal him from any prying eyes very easily, since the hills were so gradual, but fortunately that worked both ways. As much as he was easy to spot, so too was anyone else who could be nearby. Rassen had kept his mind open to the Force just to be safe, but had been unable to sense anyone else so far. For the moment at least, he was confident he was alone.

The sun had begun to set by now, its golden rays becoming weaker and weaker as the sky grew darker. The terrain may not have been flat, but it was hardly hazardous either, though the dim light that remained had slightly affected his progress. Even so, Rassen was almost at his target by this point and so was not overly concerned by the growing darkness.

Another ten minutes passed with nothing interesting occurring before a sudden prickling feeling at the back of his mind caused Rassen to freeze mid-step. The Jedi closed his eyes as he focused on the sensation, which grew stronger when he concentrated on it. The Force was trying to tell him something, something important. At the moment though he had no idea what it was. He still didn't think that he was in immediate danger, but he recognised the sensation well enough. Something terrible was about to happen.

A sudden flare of orange light followed by a colossal booming noise caused the Jedi's head to snap up in the direction it had originated from. Rassen easily recognised the sound and sight of an explosion, though the latter had been largely concealed by the hills in front of him, which he noticed were steeper than the ones he had already traversed. The explosion had taken place exactly where he was heading, exactly where the Mandalorians had planned to go once they had regrouped. They must have already managed to gather most if not all of their forces and advanced on whatever their objective was… which was something they wanted to destroy.

He didn't know what they were attacking, but he needed to find out. Despite the unknown number of Mandalorians, if he wanted to know what had brought them here then he needed to get there immediately, element of surprise be damned. Rassen closed his eyes and drew on the Force, its familiar warmth and power suffusing him in moments. His eyes snapped open and he ran, the blades of grass around him becoming indistinguishable from one another as he moved at a speed no non-Force user could hope to match. In less than a minute he had reached the base of the last hill between him and whatever the Mandalorians were attacking. The grass here was longer than before and was an unhealthy shade of yellow. Rassen was quickly shaken from his observation as he suddenly heard the familiar shrill whistle of blaster bolts and the screams which accompanied them. The Mandalorians were attacking a group of people, the occasional sound of a mass accelerator weapon joining the cacophony of blaster fire as someone tried to fight back. Rassen sprinted up the hill to see a scene of absolute carnage.

What looked like a small town lay below him, many of the buildings on one of the edges encased in flame from explosives the Mandalorians had used against them. Smoke had begun to fill the air as a result, thick trails of it twisting free from the damaged constructs. More were subjected to explosions as he watched. The Mandalorians appeared to have hit the colony entirely from one direction and they seemed to be making swift progress from what he could see. At the distance he was from the growing devastation, Rassen couldn't make out any individual figures, but whoever they were fighting it was obvious the Mandalorians were easily winning. The colony was surrounded by a wall constructed of some kind of metal, and he could just about make out what he thought was the wrecked skeleton of an anti-air gun, but even so it was obvious the colony was not military in nature. The Mandalorians were attacking a civilian outpost. The scene was eerily familiar, but Rassen pushed away the memories that attempted to fill his mind, much to the amusement of whatever part of Zaressh seemed to linger within him.

 _Now this seems familiar. It has been sixth months, so do you think you can save anyone this time, Rassen?_

Involuntarily, one of his hands curled into a fist. This time would be different than the last one. He had no idea how many Mandalorians were down there, destroying building after building. He didn't know why there were doing it, or whether there were others doing the same on different worlds. All he knew for sure was that innocent people were dying while he stood back and watched.

One hand closed around the hilt of his lightsaber, drawing it from his belt as he called on the Force once more, the rest of the world seeming to stand still as he hurtled towards the nearest section of wall. He reached it in less than ten seconds, leaping over it effortlessly before landing lightly on the other side, to the surprise of two Mandalorians directly ahead of him. He barely spoke any Mando'a, but even so, Rassen recognised the word that one of them screamed as he ignited his lightsaber, the blue blade hissing to life as he prepared to hurl it at the closest armoured figure.

"Jedi!"

The lightsaber made contact with the mid-section of the nearest Mandalorian a split-second after he had uttered the warning to his companion. The two halves of the body fell to the ground, the bulky armour having proved little match for the sapphire blade which had cleaved through it. Rassen called the lightsaber back to him as he rushed towards the second figure. The other Mandalorian stood his ground, raising his blaster rifle smoothly and squeezing the trigger, bolts of scarlet energy racing straight toward Rassen, each one perfectly aimed.

The Jedi had found the mass accelerator weapons of this galaxy difficult to defend against. Their projectiles were tiny but still absolutely lethal; being completely invisible to the naked eye once they had left the barrel of the gun which had fired them. By comparison the blaster bolts of the Mandalorian seemed slow, sluggish as they made their way towards him as he raced towards the armoured figure who stood a mere ten metres away from him. Rassen spun his blade into the path of the first few attacks, easily deflecting them back in the direction of the sole Mandalorian, who rolled to one side in order to avoid being killed by his own fire. The soldier continued shooting from his position on the ground, but once again calling on the Force, Rassen side-stepped the blaster bolts as they screamed towards him.

The Jedi then gestured at the Mandalorian before drawing his arm towards his chest, causing the blue-armoured figure to rise from the ground and be yanked through the air towards him. Rassen then brought his hand down, slamming the Mandalorian onto the ground with bone-crushing force. As his opponent writhed on the ground, choking noises emanating from his helmet as a result of the damage dealt by the attack, Rassen raised his lightsaber above his head with both hands. The figure below him barely had a chance to look up as the Jedi brought the blade straight down upon him, the tip slicing straight through the thick armour and impaling the Mandalorian directly through the heart. The man died instantly, his choking breaths cut off as his body stilled.

Rassen panted slightly as he withdrew his lightsaber, the blade humming as normal despite the fact he had just used it to kill two men. The Jedi took a deep breath to steady himself. He had a strong suspicion that these would not be the only lives he took tonight and he couldn't afford to waste time waiting around. The Mandalorians had continued to make progress in the few moments he had been occupied and some colonists could still be alive. Even though he tried to supress it, Rassen felt a surge of rage fill his mind. The Mandalorians were slaughtering near-defenceless innocents who from the sound of it only had a few security personnel to protect them. So much for the vaunted warriors of Mandalore.

Two years ago he might have felt guilt at killing two men who for all he knew were just following orders. He had admitted to Shaela that the deaths of the batarians who had attacked her when they had first met were regrettable after all. Now though, all Rassen felt was disgust as he looked down at the corpse of the second Mandalorian. A lot of things could change in two years and it seemed he was one of them. He should have felt unease at how callous he had now become to the taking of sentient life, perhaps even fear at what his utter lack of caring meant. But Rassen felt neither of these things as he began to advance deeper into the colony, the sound of panicked screams and weapons fire filling his ears, the two kinds of noise so loud he didn't hear Zaressh's laughter within his own mind.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: With a username like mine you all probably guessed that some Mandalorians would turn up in this series at some point. As always any and all feedback is appreciated. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Rob Sears (False Masks): Thank you for your kind words and support. I'll work on improving those areas and will go back and fix such mistakes when I get an opportunity to.**

 **seabo76 (False Masks): I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I started writing False Masks mainly in order to give something back to this site, which has given me so many great stories to read. Knowing that some people enjoyed that one in the same way I've enjoyed others is probably the best thing about doing this as a hobby.**

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 **Chapter 3: Horizon**

The batarian paced up and down relentlessly, tension oozing from every step he took. The armoured figure watched him expressionlessly from where they leaned against a nearby wall, displaying no visible reaction to the obvious frustration of the room's other occupant. The Mandalorian continued to wait in silence for the alien to give voice to his thoughts. That was how it worked, and she had made it abundantly clear to him that it would continue to work like that. They might be partners in their little venture but they were not equals. She would not ask him for his thoughts; he would offer them to her.

The batarian suddenly turned to slam a fist into the wall next to him, showing no signs of pain despite the force behind the blow, even though his fist struck unpainted grey metal. The Mandalorian continued to display no emotion that he could detect, but smirked slightly within the confines of her helmet. The batarian had proven useful so far but it was nonetheless entertaining when he lost his temper. The man suddenly snapped around to face her, seething in his frustration.

"How much longer will this take?" He snarled, four eyes narrowed in anger. "Justice has waited long enough; I want it served as soon as possible, _Mandalore_."

She bristled at the way the man in front of her sneered the title. Not many things could anger her easily, but not showing due respect to the position she had recently been granted was certainly one of them. "Watch your tone, _batarian_ ," she hissed, "you are certainly beneficial to me at the moment, but are not a necessity for my plans. You on the other hand would have nothing without my warriors."

The batarian smirked at her attempt to intimidate him. "I've overheard your men speaking," he began, eyes glinting with mirth. "I believe some of them mentioned that the title of _Mandalore_ is something granted once an agreement has been made between your clans. Unless I am mistaken, you only lead a small force, a mere fraction of one such group. You lay claim to a title you have decided to grant yourself, with support from only your group of boot-lickers."

The four-eyed bastard was now beginning to seriously annoy her. She had suspected that he might try and alter the status of their relationship eventually, but he was an even greater fool than she had thought if he believed he could try and do so when he still needed her far more than she did him.

It was time to remind him who held the real power between them.

The self-declared Mandalore moved from where she had been leaning to stand in front of the batarian, who was by no means short but still notably slighter than she was, her armour only amplifying the difference between them. The man hid his reaction well, but even so she could detect the trace of fear in his eyes at her approach. The batarian's eyes widened in panic as she lunged forward without warning, slamming a forearm against his neck and driving him backwards to slam him against the wall opposite where she had been leaning. He tried desperately to remove her arm, but she simply leaned forward, applying more pressure to his throat as she reminded him just why she was the one in command. The batarian's eyes rolled backwards, his grip on her arm slackening before she dropped her arm back to her side as quickly as she had used it to pin him in place. The man dropped to his knees, wheezing loudly as his body tried to make up for the amount of air it had been denied.

"When you use my title you will treat it with due respect, _batarian_ ," she snarled, making sure to carefully enunciate each word so there was no possibility of miscommunication. "As for your question… it will take as long as it takes." The communicator on her wrist beeped suddenly, causing her to turn her attention to the incoming call. The Mandalorian pressed a button on the inside of her left-wrist, the voice of the caller following a split-second later.

"Mandalore!" The voice reported, filled with a small amount of panic, but mainly excitement. "We have an unconfirmed report of a Jedi on Horizon! Two of our men were found near the wall of the colony; one sliced in half and another impaled through the heart. One of my corporals swears that he saw a flash of bright blue behind a building, though nothing was found there when we investigated. What are your orders?"

So there was a Jedi here.

She was the first Mandalore this galaxy had ever seen, and if she had her way then she would not be the last. It was only fitting that if there was indeed a Jedi present here somehow, then her rule should witness the death of such a worthy foe. In truth she was disappointed that she wasn't currently on Horizon; she would have relished the opportunity to test her skills against such an opponent.

Mandalore took a moment to quell her excitement before giving her reply. "Operate under the assumption that the Jedi is not alone. Continue the destruction of the colony; that should draw them out. Consolidate the smaller squads into a smaller number of larger ones. This will be the same Jedi that one of the last groups to make the trip reported beat them here. I want to know how much they know about this galaxy and whether any others are coming. Take them alive if at all possible, but no matter what, they don't escape." She paused for a moment. "If you have to kill them then bring me the body as proof." Whatever critics the worm at her feet had overheard, they would be silenced if the Jedi was paraded before them, either dead or alive.

"Understood, Mandalore," her subordinate replied, the excitement in his voice now fully eclipsing his fear. "The colonists have proven entertaining, but everyone is craving a proper challenge."

She smirked at the man's enthusiasm, stepping around the still gasping batarian. "Good. This wasn't planned, but it is not entirely unwelcome. The men can have their fun; just make sure that the Jedi either leaves Horizon in chains or in a bag." Mandalore cut off the call and looked down at the batarian, who was holding his throat as though that would help him to breathe more easily. "Remember who is ultimately in charge, fool. You are useful… but I can see another of your people replacing you should you continue to challenge me." She turned away from him and headed in the direction of her private quarters.

* * *

Rassen slowly leaned round the edge of the wall he was using as cover before ducking back behind it. He forced himself to breathe as quietly as possible, lest his target hear him. A lone Mandalorian stood only a few feet away, back turned and oblivious to the Jedi behind him. Several others stood about fifty feet beyond that, blaster rifles at the ready and backs turned to him as well as they prepared to breach the door of a nearby house. Rassen returned his currently unignited lightsaber to his belt, eyes practically boring through the metal wall in front of him as though he could see the sentry through his cover. He slowly began to inch out from behind the wall, the Mandalorian in front of him totally unware of his presence.

When he was practically on top of the Mandalorian, Rassen lunged forward, wrapping one arm around his target's throat, using his other to strengthen the chokehold. The Mandalorian may have been trained, but the attack had caught him completely off-guard. The soldier desperately tried to break Rassen's hold through sheer strength alone by trying to pry his grip loose while the Jedi had him off-balance. Rassen grunted quietly at the man's resistance, tightening his grip as much as he could, the padding around the Mandalorian's throat providing nowhere near as much protection as his helmet or chest plate.

The Mandalorian suddenly changed tactics, stepping backwards into Rassen and then tilting one side of his body in an attempt to throw the Jedi over his shoulder. Rassen had been expecting such a tactic though and maintained his grip, slowly crushing his target's throat. The Mandalorian's struggles began to grow weaker, and Rassen slowly began to lower the sentry to the ground, allowing himself to look over at the group of Mandalorians who had necessitated the quiet but brutal approach.

The first of the three was in the process of raising one of his legs off the ground in preparation for breaking down the door in front of him. The man's boot slammed into the object with a crashing noise Rassen could just about hear from his position, despite the continued sounds of fighting that still raged around the colony. While the door appeared to be in good condition, it clearly had not been designed to withstand a blow from a well-built adult human wearing heavy armour. The door shuddered in its frame, now positioned at a slight angle where before it had been straight. The Mandalorian raised his leg again for another strike.

The man in his arms stilled as Rassen observed the small group in front of him attempt to break into the house. Rassen maintained the hold as the presumed leader of the squad in front of him continued to bring his boot crashing against the door, which gave slightly more with each blow. Now his target had stopped struggling, Rassen adjusted his hold on the man's neck before twisting it swiftly to one side. The subsequent snapping noise was swallowed up by a distant explosion and he lowered the corpse of the Mandalorian the rest of the way to the ground, the sound far too quiet for the others to hear from this distance. Rassen slowly began creeping forward, slowly drawing his lightsaber from its place on his belt as he did so, senses alert for the arrival of any other Mandalorians as he closed in on the three in front of him.

He had made it about halfway to the closest armoured figure, keeping himself concealed as best he could using the shadows of the buildings around him before the door, having taken far more punishment than it was ever designed to, finally broke free from the door-frame, falling backwards into the house with a tremendous crash. The lead Mandalorian stormed in, his two subordinates quickly following suit while providing cover with their rifles. Rassen picked up the pace while continuing to remain as quiet as possible, determined to reach them before they could kill the house's inhabitants.

As he reached the entrance, Rassen could make out the sound of shouting, noting in surprise that it was in Mando'a, rather than Galactic Basic. His mind flashed back to the woman he had left asleep hours away among the grassy hills that seemed to dominate this planet. Some small part of him worried whether she had woken up yet. A far larger part of him didn't care. That realisation caused Rassen to pause just outside the entrance to the house. Since when had he become so uncaring?

The sound of a blaster rifle being cocked reached Rassen's ears and he entered the house, now standing in a narrow hallway, doors to various rooms on each wall. The sound of the blaster rifle preparing to fire had been very close and come from somewhere to his left. Rassen crept over to the closest door on that side of the corridor, noting that it was ajar while the rest, bar the one he had passed through, were closed. The Jedi slowly leaned his head around the door, eyes widening at the sight before him.

The room appeared to be some sort of living area, being a wide open space with several comfortable looking chairs and a sofa scattered around it. The floor appeared to be made of wood or at least something which resembled it, with the walls being painted a light shade of yellow. On the sofa, two human children huddled together, arms tight around one another as they looked in horror at the sight in front of them. A turian lay on the ground between the two children and the three Mandalorians that all had their weapons aimed squarely at him. Clearly the turian had lunged at his attackers in an attempt to defend the two children behind him, only to be knocked down, hence the shouting.

One of the Mandalorians suddenly stiffened and turned around to face Rassen, blaster rifle rising to his shoulder as he did so. The element of surprise lost, the Jedi lunged forward, lightsaber hissing to life as he did so. The first Mandalorian didn't even have a chance to pull the trigger before he was impaled through the stomach, the deadly energy of the lightsaber cauterising the flesh around the fatal wound instantly. The other two Mandalorians instantly turned and opened fire, bolts of scarlet energy screaming though the space between them and him. Rassen withdrew his lightsaber from their comrade and blocked their attacks with only a little difficulty, sending one of the blaster bolts back at the man who had fired it. The projectile slammed into the Mandalorian's blaster rifle, blowing it cleanly into two useless halves which the warrior continued to clutch in surprise.

The amount of fire he was being subjected to now halved, Rassen seized the now unarmed Mandalorian with the Force and pulled him in front of the armed one. The man now between him and the third Mandalorian, who Rassen recognised was the leader, shook horrifically with the impact from each blaster hit. The leader continued to fire, seemingly uncaring about the fact that his subordinate had become a human shield. The blaster rifle in his hands finally stopped firing after a few moments, power pack exhausted, and Rassen threw the second Mandalorian to the side, the corpse sailing several metres before hitting a wall with a tremendous crash. Rassen prepared to lunge forward, intending to skewer the last surviving Mandalorian in the same way as the first.

The leader, clearly more experienced than his soldiers, caught on before he could do so and hurled his now useless rifle at the Jedi opposite him. Rassen was caught off-guard and ducked before the heavy weapon could catch him full in the face. He looked up to see that the Mandalorian had used the momentary distraction to close the distance between them, but could not respond in time to avoid the man's shoulder slamming into his chest, causing both of them to crash to the floor, his lightsaber spinning away, hissing as it deactivated.

While his armour took the impact of the Mandalorian's charge well, Rassen's vision exploded with stars as the back of his head slammed into the floor, causing the Jedi to groan in pain. His sight began to return almost instantly, causing Rassen to quickly raise his arms to cover his face at the sight of the Mandalorian kneeling next to him, about to attack. His attempt to defend himself was only able to partially block the fist which crashed down upon him; such was the force behind the Mandalorian's punch. Rassen tasted blood as the man's armoured gauntlet caught him across the jaw, only adding to the feeling of disorientation which still lingered from the impact of his head against the wooden floor of the living room.

The Mandalorian used the opportunity to grab the front of his armour, lifting the Jedi slightly off the ground before slamming him back down again. Stars filled Rassen's vision once more as the back of his head collided with the ground for a second time. The Jedi felt his strength fading, his arms knocked away by the impact, leaving his face exposed to another punch from the man above him.

 _Are you really going to give up so easily, Rassen?_

Time seemed to slow as Zaressh's sneer filled his mind. The Mandalorian seemed to waver for a moment, colours shifting strangely, before he changed, morphing into the man Rassen despised more than anyone else he had ever fought, more than any enemy he had ever vanquished. Rage seemed to consume him as Zaressh's fist slowly made its way down towards him. If he died now then it would all have been for nothing. He would never know why the Mandalorians were attacking this colony. He would never know if anyone would be able to stop them from achieving whatever goal had brought them here. He would never see Shaela again.

Rassen lunged forward with all of his remaining strength, one hand grabbing the fist about to smash into his face. He could feel his attacker's surprise as the man attempted to pull his hand out of grip that held it fast. Zaressh prepared to punch him with his other hand and finally Rassen snapped. He glared at the Sith's mask hatefully and _squeezed_.

A choking noise emanated from behind Zaressh's mask and the Sith brought his free hand to his throat as though trying to remove a hand gripped around it. Rassen smirked at the man's struggles and concentrated harder, tightening the hold as Zaressh attempted to breath. He raised both of his legs to his chest and kicked the weakened man away, slowly rising to his feet, anger allowing him to ignore the agony radiating from both his face and the back of his head. Rassen watched as the Sith struggled against the invisible pressure slowly crushing his throat, smirk widening into a full smile as the man's struggles began to grow weaker.

Eventually Zaressh stopped struggling, arms falling to his sides as he lay on the ground next to the Mandalorians. Rassen stood there panting as the adrenaline and haze of rage left him. Killing Zaressh had felt… good. He had deserved it, hadn't he? Yes of course he had. Rassen had only been defending himself. He froze in confusion as Zaressh's body began to waver, being replaced by a blue and white armoured figure much like the two next to it.

Then the realisation of what had just happened sank in.

Rassen staggered to the nearest wall before collapsing against it, allowing himself to slowly slide down to the floor, paying the turian and two children who watched him in horror no attention. Killing the man was not what bothered him; he had killed in self-defence or to protect innocents before. No, what bothered him was how he had done it. Rassen could justify everything else he had done since returning to this galaxy so far. He had needed information from the first Mandalorian. He had come to help the colonists and so had killed the pair of Mandalorians he had encountered when he had first entered the colony. The method he had used to kill the lone sentry had been brutal, but it had been quiet. He had needed to get to the house without attracting attention; if the three Mandalorians he had just killed had seen him approaching then they could have called for reinforcements.

The first two of those three he had killed were likewise justifiable. They had been about to kill the turian and the two children, so he had intervened before they could. All of the deaths he had caused up to that point had been tolerable in the methods used.

Then there was the most recent one.

The hate, the rage he had felt when the Mandalorian had gained the upper hand. The satisfaction of slowly choking the life out of the man when Zaressh's voice had filled his mind and he had changed into the Sith. A lot had occurred during the time spent trying to find a way back to this galaxy, but in all of that time Rassen had not compromised who he was, at least not too much, he had always reassured himself. He was undoubtedly different, hardened, but what he had just done was horrific. He had given in to the Dark Side, just for a moment.

The Jedi began shaking uncontrollably as he thought back to everything he had done since awakening, seeing it all through a new lens. Just because he could justify it, did that make it right? Had he needed to keep threatening the first Mandalorian he had met even once she had agreed to answer his questions? His mind turned to the device he had touched which had brought him back. Had it done something to him? Ever since Zaressh had died, he had heard the Sith's voice in his head, taunting him or encouraging him to do things he would not have normally. He had learned to ignore it, putting the phenomenon down to being the result of the Force bond the Sith had created between them, an echo of Zaressh's personality. Whatever part of the Sith lingered within him tried giving voice to decisions he would normally never make, a personification of the worst parts of him perhaps, the parts which everyone had but only a few ever embraced. But what if, Rassen had to swallow the bile that welled up in his throat at his next thought, what if the device he had touched had amplified the Sith's influence somehow? The bond between himself and Zaressh had been tied to the Force and so could the device have strengthened the Sith's presence within his mind? If so then Rassen had no idea how it could have done so. He had been able to ignore it relatively easily before coming back, but now perhaps Zaressh's voice was no longer simply enhancing certain thoughts at the back of his mind. Perhaps it had begun introducing ones of its own. Perhaps it was no longer simply an echo of the dead Sith, but had become something more.

 _Now isn't that an interesting development?_

* * *

Shaela finished examining the report before glancing at the woman it pertained to. The human had made a swift recovery, no doubt due to the vast knowledge and skill of Matriarch Wessa. The asari had left to investigate an apparent disturbance in the reception of the hospital where they both worked, leaving her to deliver the report to the patient. The quarian turned to face the human, who looked back at her with a small amount of anxiety.

"Everything seems to be well on its way to healing completely," she smiled, not that the human could see it. "Just avoid putting too much strain on your leg and the pain should fade completely within three days at the most."

Her patient relaxed with a smile before turning to her partner, a beige-suited quarian who had been far more apprehensive than his other half, practically right on the edge of the chair where he sat next to her. The quarian took the human's outstretched hand in one of his own before squeezing it gently. He then turned his attention to Shaela. "Thank you so much for everything," he began, eyes shining behind his visor, "when she was wounded I was so worried and-"

"You worry too much," the woman interrupted, though she smiled lovingly at the man as he turned his attention back to her. "I love you, but you always worry too much about me. I'm an Alliance marine, remember?"

"I remember."

The human's smile widened and she leaned over to kiss the side of the quarian's mask. Shaela smiled widely at the sight, before a pang of sadness seemed to stab deeply into her chest. She loved helping patients, particularly when they had people they were close to. Seeing the joy they and those close to them felt when she announced that a full recovery was almost certain always seemed to make everything worthwhile. Still, the displays of affection that followed, particularly between lovers always served to remind her of Rassen, and whether she would ever see him again. Despite the encouragements of Wessa, there were moments when she wasn't quite as sure as she wanted to be that Rassen would miraculously return. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't hear the door to the makeshift hospital room open behind her and jumped slightly at the voice which followed.

"Hey, sis! Wow, this place is so cool!"

"Rissel!" Shaela's enthusiasm at the unexpected appearance of her sister was dampened slightly at her sudden barging in. "You're not supposed…" she trailed off as Wessa gracefully entered the room after the enthusiastic green-suited quarian, smiling slightly at Shaela's reaction to the disturbance.

"This one," the asari began, turning to face Rissel for a moment, "has just spent ten minutes badgering the receptionist about how you were supposed to be home half an hour ago, before then ambushing me once I arrived expecting something more akin to a pirate attack. Suffice to say, I was rather shocked that one quarian could cause so much commotion." Wessa's smile grew during the course of her explanation, much to both Rissel and Shaela's embarrassment.

Shaela glanced at her omni-tool in surprise, having lost track of time due to being so invested in her work. "Sorry," she began, looking back at the couple who were watching the proceedings in bemusement. "I must have forgotten that I needed to head home early today."

Wessa smiled again, the asari still beautiful despite centuries of treating injuries of all kinds across the galaxy. "I'll finish up here, why don't you take your sister home before she causes any more trouble?"

* * *

The sun had begun to set as the two quarians left the building and began to make the trek home. Shaela smiled at the sight of the city taking shape before her. All of the houses she could see were cobbled together out of the ships the quarians had used for hundreds of years, but they were still homes. The struggle wasn't over for her people, but they had passed the biggest hurdle. They had Rannoch back, even if there was still plenty to be done. She was only twenty-three and so would likely live to see the vast majority of the reconstruction completed, Shaela realised, smiling more widely.

Rissel drew alongside her, the shorter quarian's hood flapping slightly as a sudden gust of wind caught it. "Race you home?" Her sister asked, leaning forward in preparation for her confirmation. Shaela shook her head in response, more than a little irritated at Rissel causing trouble several minutes prior.

"No, Rissel."

"Loser!" The other quarian raced away, leaving her standing there in surprise for a moment. Shaela shook her head again, though this time she couldn't help smirking slightly.

 _She's going down._

Their home, a ramshackle structure in the same vein as all of the other ones in the area, lay only five minutes from the hospital, but Shaela was still able to overtake her sister in that time, laughing as she did so. Rissel huffed in frustration as she was overtaken, and Shaela laughed even harder at the younger quarian's frustration.

She could have continued widening her lead, but held back, preferring to keep only a few metres ahead of Rissel in order to avoid making her too upset; her younger sister could be very competitive. She may have been eighteen, but in some ways it seemed like Rissel never would grow up. Shaela soon reached the final corner before their house, still in the lead. The finish line was in sight, another victory to add to her unbeaten record. She was less than ten metres away before there was a slight throbbing sensation at the back of her mind, a feeling she had not felt in more than two years. She skidded to a halt, Rissel racing past her with a whoop of victory before turning back to face her sister, arms held above her head.

"Victory! You didn't reach the door, so I win! Come on, let's head inside…" Rissel trailed off, arms still raised above her head as Shaela gave no indication she had heard her. The other quarian might as well have been on another planet. That sensation… she recognised it, but it was different somehow, it felt… conflicted, for lack of a better term. Shaela's eyes widened and her breathing became quicker and shallower as she realised what that feeling was. She paid no attention to Rissel calling her name as she turned and walked slowly over to a nearby rock before raising a hand in its direction. She had to be sure, she just had to be.

Shaela focused and reached out, willing the rock to rise. For a moment nothing happened. Then slowly, agonisingly slowly, the rock, about the size of a brick, rose from the ground, slowly rotating in mid-air. She vaguely heard Rissel gasp in surprise at the sight, but was too amazed at the feeling of warmth the Force provided to explain what she was doing. The feeling of connecting with the Force was exactly like she remembered, perhaps better even. She had lost the ability to feel it when Rassen had vanished; presumably the bond between them wasn't strong enough to allow her to do so when they were literally galaxies apart. But if she could feel it now…

Rassen was back. Somehow he had found a way.

That sensation… that was him, Shaela realised with a start. It was the same sensation she had felt when she was around him, but it was different, darker. That scared her, the thought that he was fighting something deep within himself. The idea that what had nearly happened to her, what still occasionally gave her nightmares could be happening to the man she loved was horrifying. More than fear though, she felt resolve. Rassen had saved her in that moment when she had almost let her hate and fear control her. Now she needed to save him. She had found him on Omega before she knew that he loved her back. Now he had managed to find a way from one galaxy to another for her. He had come far enough. She could make it the rest of the way.

Despite her fear, tears of joy began to make their way down Shaela's cheeks and she flung her arms around Rissel in a hug, almost knocking the other quarian over. She gazed up at Rannoch's setting sun, silver eyes narrowed in determination. One day was ending so another could begin.

 _Hold on, Rassen. I'm coming._


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Reviews:**

 **AnarionRising27: I will! One of the main criticisms people had when it came to False Masks was the pacing, particularly after the first few chapters through to just after the middle. While I'll try to avoid rushing anything, I'm attempting to ensure that Spectre moves along at a brisker pace. I'm trying to introduce the various elements early enough that there is time to develop all of them though. Thank you once again for reviewing.**

 **dekuton: You're right that many Mass Effect/SWTOR fics follow the plot of one of the games (particularly one of the Mass Effects) with only minor changes. Hence why I decided to try and do my own thing with False Masks and this story. As for the Mandalorians:**

 **Mass Effect/SWTOR crossovers so far have largely concentrated on Sith as antagonists, so I had decided even weeks before finishing False Masks to go with Mandalorians for the sequel in order to mix it up. After all, we've already had Zaressh and so I didn't want to have another, more powerful Sith, as that would have been going through the motions. I really appreciate all of your support so far, you've been with me pretty much from the beginning after all!**

 **Chapter 4: Echoes**

Rassen didn't know how long he sat there, staring blankly at the wall opposite him. He didn't know how long the turian and two children remained where they were, looking at him with expressions of horror. As the continued sounds of blaster fire and the dwindling reports of mass accelerator weapons continued to sound around the colony, the Jedi stayed with his back propped up against the wall, oblivious to everything going on around him.

More than two years of trying to find a way back. Rassen had done things he wasn't proud of in that time. He had possessed little money and so had been forced to hide aboard passenger ships to get where he needed to go without paying, even if the crew were simply honest people trying to make a living. He had threatened people where diplomacy had failed. He had even killed when his own life was under threat. The whole time he had endured Zaressh's voice taunting him, trying to persuade him, and just generally making his situation more unpleasant than it already was. Throughout it all though, Rassen had believed that he was making the best possible decisions. Circumstances had forced him to adapt, but he had always chosen the solutions that prevented any harm coming to innocents. When he had killed it had always been because he had no choice, and he had been sure to do it quickly and painlessly.

But in the less than one day he had been back he wasn't sure he recognised himself. The Mandalorian woman he had met upon arrival hadn't required the constant threatening he had subjected her to, yet he had done it anyway. It had been his life against the final Mandalorian's when the latter had tried to beat him to death. But he had drawn out the man's suffering, enjoyed it, _revelled_ in it even. In what was quickly becoming a trend, a memory sprung unbidden to Rassen's mind once more. It was a memory very familiar to him, one of the first he had of _her_.

 _Rassen watched as Shaela hesitated for a moment, then leaned back fully into the sofa at his encouraging nod. He then turned his attention back to the ankle that he still held lightly in his hands and reached out to the Force._

His first day here he had helped someone in distress. He had saved their life and healed them, not for any kind of reward, but because it had been the right thing to do. He had never been perfect, but Rassen had tried to be the best Jedi possible before he had met Shaela. Even afterwards, bar of course when he had admitted to her that he was as much in love with her as she was with him; he could still look back and honestly say that he had still acted for the most part as a Jedi should have.

In the same amount of time since returning two years later he had threatened someone and killed another slowly, enjoying their suffering. Some Jedi he had turned out to be. If Shaela saw him now… truth be told he didn't know what the quarian would think.

 _If the alien is still alive and not bereft of any sense then she would probably run away as fast as possible… hopefully tearing her enviro-suit on something in the process of doing so._

"Shut up," Rassen growled quietly, though his response was still loud enough to cause the other occupants of the room to flinch. He glanced over at the three of them, the turian slowly backing away from where he lay on the floor in order to get closer to the children. Rassen felt a stab of guilt. That however quickly gave way to a surge of rage as Zaressh's voice continued to taunt him.

 _How very unlike a Jedi. "There is no emotion, there is peace." Remember?_

* * *

Rassen would have likely remained there for hours, mind raging against the Sith's taunts, if not for an unfamiliar squawking noise cutting through his thoughts. The Jedi slowly turned to face the other three occupants of the room. The turian had his arms around the two children and was looking at him mournfully. Rassen frowned in confusion before his eyes widened in understanding.

 _No omni-tool. I am currently unable to understand anyone in this galaxy… aside of course for the Mandalorians, provided of course that they use basic and not rely excessively on Mando'a._

He grunted before slowly rising to his feet, wincing as his head and face throbbed painfully. He needed to heal himself, but for the moment that could wait. Rassen glanced over at the turian, who spoke again, his words completely alien to the Jedi. The man then nodded over at the three corpses in the centre of the living area, before returning his attention to Rassen. The Jedi felt his heart clench. Now he understood what the turian was saying, what he was asking.

Are you going to do to us what you did to them?

Rassen shook his head tiredly, noting that the turian seemed to calm slightly, though he was still suspicious, if the tightness of his mandibles was any indication. The man then asked something else, causing Rassen to shrug his shoulders and point at his left wrist. The turian's eyes widened in comprehension before he nodded quickly, the movement causing Rassen to notice the dull orange face paint he wore for the first time.

An explosion seemed to occur only a few houses away and Rassen winced at his own stupidity. How long had he spent sitting on the floor feeling sorry for himself? How many people had the Mandalorians killed in that time? He paused, keeping his ears peeled for any sounds of mass accelerator fire. Nothing. Blaster bolts aplenty, but it seemed what little the colony had in terms of security forces had been wiped out while he was distracted. Force damn it.

The Jedi glanced around himself quickly, desperately trying to think of what his next move should be. If the Mandalorians found the three innocents in front of him, then he had no doubt that they would be subjected to the same fate as the rest of the colony. He glanced down at the floor before pausing, a small smile appearing on his face.

Rassen walked over to one of the unoccupied chairs, an old-fashioned armchair which had no legs to speak of, the base almost sitting on the ground, only being prevented from doing so by a small wheel at each corner. Rassen pushed the piece of furniture aside, noting with approval that the object was relatively easy to move. The floor beneath where the armchair had originally stood was now revealed, including the marks from where the wheels of the piece of furniture had scuffed it due to constant use. Rassen turned to the three people huddled on the sofa and raised a finger to his lips. The turian nodded in understanding before whispering something to the children, both of whom nodded in reply.

Rassen raised a hand, calling his lightsaber back to him. Motioning again for quiet, the Jedi ignited the weapon before cutting a circle wide enough for an adult to fit though. The two children squirmed at the sight of the weapon, but the turian whispered something else to them, causing them both to remain quiet. Rassen then raised a hand, lifting the manhole seized piece of floor up with the Force before depositing it off to the side. He leaned forward over the hole, noting with satisfaction that the area beneath the house among the foundations was hollow, likely to allow for easy repairs to be made should the foundations themselves need maintenance.

Rassen stepped back away from the hole and nodded at the turian before then doing the same in the direction of the makeshift hiding place. The man's eyes widened in understanding as he turned to speak encouragingly to the children he cradled, ushering the two of them down the hole. Once his two charges were safely hidden, the turian paused before following, turning to look at Rassen. The Jedi nodded to him and pointed to himself, then indicated the removed piece of floor and the chair. The turian's mandibles widened into a smile before he then proceeded after the children, joining them beneath the house itself. Rassen lifted the piece of floor back into place with the Force, noting with relief that it fit comfortably without falling through the hole, though the burn mark was obvious. The Jedi then placed the armchair exactly where it had been before. The chair now covered the damage perfectly, leaving the room looking exactly as before, aside from where blaster bolts had scored the walls, and of course, the three Mandalorian corpses.

Rassen crept over to the nearest window, alert for any nearby Mandalorians. Upon confirming that there were none nearby, the Jedi levitated the three corpses and their weapons and proceeded to walk out through the front of the house, the Mandalorians and their blasters floating behind him. Using the Force to ensure that there were still no Mandalorians nearby, Rassen gently lowered the corpses and weapons to the ground outside one of the nearby buildings. With any luck it would appear to any other Mandalorians that came along and searched the area that this group had attacked him in the living room of the house he had just left, pursued him outside, only for him to kill them outside another building in self-defence. Hopefully they would believe he had spent only mere moments in the house where he had actually killed their comrades, and that would be enough to keep the three people now hiding among the foundations safe from being noticed. It would however reveal to the Mandalorians that someone with a lightsaber had made the trip with them. The more experienced among them would recognise that one of the three had been killed with a lightsaber.

A wave of nausea suddenly overwhelmed Rassen, causing him to stagger forwards before collapsing to his knees. The Jedi's stomach churned unpleasantly, the world beginning to spin around him. Rassen groaned in realisation.

 _Concussion, it has to be._

He couldn't return to the house in order to heal himself. If he was discovered by any Mandalorians then they would certainly conduct a more thorough search of that building than they would otherwise perform. With how he felt, Rassen doubted the process of Force healing would be as quick as it normally was, given how he suddenly seemed to have difficulty concentrating.

That being said, staying on all fours among the corpses of three Mandalorians in the open was hardly an improvement.

Rassen pushed himself to his feet, staggering heavily and nearly falling over before he succeeded in straightening up. He needed to find somewhere else to hold up, somewhere the Mandalorians had already searched, as that would be somewhere they would be less likely to find him. That being said, if he chose one of the buildings near to his current position then that might cause the Mandalorians to search the houses near him more thoroughly should they find him, which would still mean the turian and the children might be found.

Gritting his teeth as his pulse pounded in his ears and the ground seemed to shift beneath his feet, Rassen began to look for somewhere suitable to hide.

* * *

Kasumi tapped two of her fingers absentmindedly on the control panel in front of her as she waited for the call to connect. Between the fact that many comm buoys had been destroyed by the Reapers, her ship lacking a direct QED connection and the distance she often was from Liara, her call requests normally took a long time for the Shadow Broker to receive. Naturally the quality of their calls was not ideal either, with bursts of static and the audio cutting out being common occurrences.

The thief frowned to herself, crossing her legs and placing both hands in her lap. While it did take a while to get through to Liara these days, this was the longest wait yet. Kasumi felt a slight pang of fear as she considered the possibility that something had happened to the asari, before she forced herself to relax. Old habits died hard it seemed. The war was over now, the galaxy being a far less dangerous place than it had once been, but it was unsurprising that she was still struggling to fully accept that. She doubted she was the only one.

Kasumi had met the current Shadow Broker for the first time late into the Reaper War, at Shepard's party before the final battle had taken place. Even though she hadn't known the asari for long, that didn't change the fact that Kasumi had liked Liara instantly upon meeting her. Both of them collected items of value, though Liara mainly limited herself to artifacts related to the protheans, while she would get her hands on anything which interested her. That and their methods for acquiring such items were rather different.

Kasumi began chewing her bottom lip. Hours had passed now, this was getting ridiculous. She finally leaned over to her ship's communication software to check it for faults, before static appeared across the monitor in front of her. The thief froze with one hand out-stretched before shaking her head, laughing softly to herself.

 _A bit more sentimental about others than I used to be._

The static abruptly cleared to reveal Liara, the asari looking haggard as she muttered a greeting. Kasumi raised an eyebrow at her friend's appearance. Liara's eyes were bloodshot, lacking their normal intensity. The asari's crest was flushed, indicating distress or sickness. Liara had been absolutely fine the last time they had spoken mere days ago, so what could possibly have happened to affect her so badly in that time? Kasumi opened her mouth to talk, but the asari beat her to the punch.

"Kasumi? Can you hear me?" A burst of static followed before the asari's face reappeared, the audio cutting out at the same time before returning.

"Barely, there are a few connection issues, but what else is new?" The thief replied, attempting to lift Liara's clearly down-trodden spirits. The asari hadn't looked so distraught since the war had ended. Her worry deepened. What could possibly have occurred over the last few days?

"A lot, I'm afraid," Liara muttered, eyes turning to a multitude of datapads in front of her as the asari scanned the contents of each before seizing the one she had evidently been looking for. "Horizon has been attacked by unknown assailants."

Kasumi nearly shot to her feet in surprise. "What!" She gasped, understanding what the asari had said but barely able to accept it. "When?"

Horizon was one of the colonies the Collectors had attacked when they had been abducting humans in the Terminus Systems. It was also where Shepard and his team (her included) had dealt them their first major setback. Cerberus had later turned the colony into a slaughterhouse, luring in refuges during the war in order to convert them into husks and study indoctrination. Now Horizon was once more a colony. Many of the buildings had largely survived Shepard's successful shutdown of the place. With the sheer number of refugees in the galaxy and the lack of housing, the colony had been returned to its original function, despite the lives lost there. Beggars couldn't be choosers.

Liara blinked tiredly, the pressure of the situation clearly weighing on her heavily. "Only a few hours ago according to an agent I had there. He didn't report in after sending me what he could and had orders to continue to provide more information in the event of anything suspicious happening. He claimed that the colony was under attack from an overwhelming force. I have to assume the worst has happened to him… and that the colony has been destroyed."

Kasumi shook her head sadly, heart clenching at the thought of the people who had gone to Horizon to make a new life once the Reapers had been defeated. "Who would do something like that though? None of the races are in a position to organise a strike against a colony and most of them are on better terms than they have been in hundreds of years, perhaps ever." She paused for a moment. "Is the Alliance able to do anything?"

Liara shook her head before responding. "Even though Horizon is once again a majority human colony, the Alliance is stretched too thin. They won't risk sending a single ship under the belief that it could be destroyed. They will send a taskforce to investigate in all likelihood, but that could take weeks to organise, the situation being what it is. Everyone else has the same problem." The asari looked up from the datapad at Kasumi. "I currently have no idea who is responsible, or whether they could do this again. While I have managed to circulate everything I do know to the Alliance, no one there had responded. It is likely that they know as little as we do."

"What happens now?"

"That… well, that…" Liara swallowed before looking away from her. Kasumi felt her stomach sink slightly.

"You want me to go and check it out. I'm the closest person you know to Horizon, aren't I?"

Liara nodded, though she was clearly unhappy with herself. "Yes," the asari admitted. "If my agent's report was accurate and we factor in the delay in its arrival owing to the communications situation, then the colony will be entirely devastated by the time you arrive. Hopefully whoever is responsible will be gone, but have left enough clues to give us something to work from." Her friend looked straight into Kasumi's eyes, causing the Japanese woman to straighten in her seat. "I know this is not the kind of thing you normally do, Kasumi, but lives could depend on this. Garrus would be the best choice, owing to his past with C-Sec, but he's currently on Palaven. For all we know another attack is imminent. Someone needs to investigate as soon as possible."

Kasumi nodded slowly, pushing away her doubts. This was certainly outside her comfort zone, but it needed to be done. She looked back into the asari's eyes, lips pulling into a small smile which Liara tentatively returned.

"Send me the report and I'll head to Horizon right now."

* * *

He wasn't sure how long he had been moving. It probably hadn't been long, but his perception of time seemed to be more than slightly off. He knew it had been getting dark when he had arrived, but the sun had almost entirely set now, darkness blanketing the colony, though it was occasionally broken by the scarlet flashes of blaster fire. Rassen groaned quietly to himself as the pounding in his head seemed to grow stronger for a moment. The longer he spent moving, the worse it became. The Jedi glanced behind him, unsure how much ground he had covered. He groaned again before stumbling into a narrow alleyway, doors to various buildings lining each side, all either open or lying on the ground, knocked out of their frames. The Jedi smiled painfully before making his way to the nearest building, a storage facility of some kind judging by its appearance, leaning on the wall leading to it heavily for support.

The sound of a nearby voice caused Rassen to freeze, pulse racing. Inwardly, the Jedi cursed himself for letting his concentration slip. It was too easy to lose focus and awareness of his surroundings, owing to the pounding in his head and how the ground seemed like it was spinning beneath him. Truthfully he wasn't sure how he had managed to make it this far. Rassen continued moving towards his chosen hiding place as the first voice was joined by several others, the stomping noise of heavy boots reaching his ears. The Mandalorians weren't far away, perhaps just around the corner at the opposite end of the alley to where he was. Rassen gritted his teeth as he forced himself to speed up, doing his best to remain as quiet as possible as he did so.

He was just about able to make out that the voices were speaking Basic as he entered the first building, slowly making his way through the first room before collapsing onto his back in the one beyond it, breathing heavily as he did so. Basic meant Mandalorians and given his injuries, he quite frankly didn't like his chances against one of them, let alone several. Rassen forced himself to breath more quietly as the sound of the Mandalorians' heavy boots and voices grew louder. They had to be in the alley now, if the noise they were making was any indication. Rassen frowned as he tried to make out exactly what the Mandalorians were saying, struggling to prop himself up on his arms as he did so.

"That's the last of the ones in this section of the colony, people. We proceed west to meet up with the squads which have finished there." Rassen snarled in anger at the callous tone of the Mandalorian commander. He and his soldiers had killed innocent people; did they feel no remorse for their actions? Were they just blindly following orders?

One of the commander's subordinates spoke up. "Sir, if we're linking up with the other squads, then that means that command is taking that report seriously, doesn't it?" The question was followed by a moment of silence aside from the continued footfalls of the Mandalorians. Rassen frowned in concentration, trying desperately to sense how many there were. Three? Four? Not many, but certainly more than he could take in his current condition.

By the time the commander answered, the Mandalorians had marched past his hiding place and made it to the other end of the alley. "Yes," he admitted, his voice continuing to grow fainter as he and his men moved further away. "Two are confirmed killed near the colony's wall not far from here, and four more haven't reported in, so they're probably dead as well. While we still don't have proper confirmation, it's almost certain that a Jedi is present…" Despite Rassen's best efforts, the Mandalorians moved out of earshot before he could hear the end of the man's explanation.

Rassen grunted before rolling over onto his side, using one arm to keep himself steady. He raised the other to position his hand on the back of his head in order to lower the hood of his cloak. As much as the blows to his face still pained him, the concussion was likely the result of the damage done to the back of his head. The Jedi closed his eyes, reaching out to the Force as he did so. The pain in his head flared worse than ever, causing Rassen to cry out, but he kept trying. Slowly but surely the familiar warm feeling only the Force could bring seemed to suffuse his body. Rassen gently directed the flow through his hand and to the back of his head, moaning in relief as the pain began to slowly fade, his vision sharpening as the concussion gradually receded.

After a few minutes of gentle healing, the back of his head was as good as ever, though between the effort of fixing his wounds there and the events of the day so far, he felt exhausted. Pushing his fatigue aside, Rassen moved his hand to his face and began the process again, several more minutes passing before his face no longer pained him.

The Jedi's other arm slowly gave way, causing him to sink back down onto the floor on his back, eyelids heavy. Rassen grunted quietly before rolling onto his front. Fatigue or no fatigue, people still needed his help. He could still hear the sound of blaster rifle fire, though it seemed less frequent and further away than it had been. That was probably important, but at that exact moment Rassen couldn't figure out why.

After a minute or so he had finally managed to get back to his feet, swaying now not as the result of a concussion, but from a need to rest, a sense of tiredness more profound than he had ever felt before. His mind began wondering as he took a step forwards towards the alley outside. He had been lucky this building was still intact, bar the damage done to its door of course. Rassen blinked in surprise as he looked around himself, finally taking in where he was. His initial guess had been right in that he stood in a storage facility of some kind, relatively large, the first room he had passed through being a reception. He was currently in a warehouse of some kind, pieces of various technology lining the shelves around him. Nothing military, but there was farming equipment, kitchen appliances and most interestingly of all…

 _Omni-tools._

Rassen staggered over to the nearest one before slipping it onto his left wrist and then activating the piece of technology. The orange glow felt like an old friend as it enveloped his forearm, softly illuminating the room around him. He could figure out how to activate its translation software later. It would certainly be useful down the line, but there were lives to save first. Rassen frowned, eyes practically closed as he tried to remember where he had been before he had begun noticing his surroundings. Something about being lucky that this building was still largely intact.

Wait, why _was_ this building still intact? Furthermore, why were the ones near it intact as well?

Eyes snapping open, Rassen began thinking as fast as he could. He had observed the Mandalorians breaking into buildings before destroying them. Blowing them up with vehicles would have been quicker, but he hadn't heard the familiar drone of either tanks or aircraft above the sounds of fighting. The Mandalorians presumably hadn't been able to bring any vehicles with them, the device apparently only being capable of transporting people and handheld equipment. After all, the Mandalorians he had followed had only transported themselves, their armour and their weapons. Their attack was purely infantry orientated, meaning they had to destroy each building using whatever could be carried by a person. Hence they must have put an explosive, perhaps something as simple as a well-placed thermal detonator, into each building once they had cleared them, before then moving on. The colonists were killed by blaster fire and then each building was rendered unusable. Just doing the latter would not have guaranteed the death of the colonists; hurling grenades into a building did not always kill the occupants if you were unsure where they were within it.

Now he turned his thoughts to what he had just overheard. The Mandalorian command knew he was within the colony and had worked out his approximate location. The squad that had passed him mere minutes ago had been leaving the area in order to link up with others like it. The buildings around him had already been cleared, but not yet damaged beyond that.

A shrill ringing sound suddenly whistled from seemingly every direction. Rassen twisted on the spot before noticing a red light flashing from behind what appeared to be a plough of some kind. He froze upon noticing that the culprit was a ramshackle device, cobbled together out of whatever technology the Mandalorians had been able to scavenge, blaster power packs and worst of all, thermal detonators.

The Mandalorians knew roughly where he was. They were leaving the area in order to regroup elsewhere. They had searched the buildings here but had not yet destroyed or even seriously damaged them.

Then the bomb in front of him exploded.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: First up, I am really sorry about the wait between the last chapter and this one. This year has been more than a little hectic so far and looks like it will continue to be so going forward. As a result, there will be periods where I update more frequently and ones where the wait between chapters is greater.**

 **As a side note, everyone has probably noticed by this point that I use the English spellings of words, not the American ones. No one has complained yet, but I just thought I'd mention it now, since there are quite a few of these in this chapter.**

 **Reviews:**

 **AnarionRising27: "Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design." - The Emperor, Return of the Jedi. The pieces are moving so to speak. Stick around to find out where all of these elements lead...**

 **seabo76: Glad to hear that you're on board so far. It's also great that you like Kasumi, since I feel personally that due to the limitations of Stolen Memory (both in terms of it being DLC you have to pay for and it not including proper dialogue scenes bar the loyalty mission) and her very limited role in ME3, not a lot of attention has been given to the character by fans. I just hope that I can get her right, given that I don't have as much to go on as I would in the case of Tali/Liara/Garrus etc.**

 **Chapter 5: Purpose**

Shaela breathed in slowly before gently exhaling. She knew what she wanted to say, but finding the right words to express herself, to allow her family to understand was proving challenging. She couldn't tell them everything; she doubted they would let her go if they knew that there was even the slightest hint she could be barrelling headfirst into danger. She had to provide a persuasive argument though, the only difficulty of course being that she had to touch on what had become a rather taboo subject once she had returned to the Migrant Fleet two years ago.

Her Pilgrimage.

It wasn't that she hadn't completed it. Plenty of other quarians had still been out there, attempting to find an acceptable gift to present to a captain, when the call for them to return had been sent out. It wasn't even that she had spent so long unable to find a gift even before that. No, it was how she had been once she had returned.

She had made it abundantly clear upon being reunited with her family that she didn't want to talk about what had happened. Her parents and sister had of course tried to get her to open up, but Shaela hadn't budged. Just thinking about Rassen's disappearance in the months after it had occurred had caused ice to fill her lungs and resulted in her breaking down in floods of tears. He wasn't dead, but she couldn't see him. That was the worst thing about the situation; the knowledge that he was still out there but she might never see him again.

The war with the geth and then Reapers had, ironically, caused her attitude to improve. There had always been work to do on the Kilal of course, but with the casualties incurred in the fighting, she had thrown herself into helping as many people as possible. As the months had continued to drag on, the pain had shrunk to a dull ache in her chest when she thought about Rassen. She hadn't forgotten him, but she managed to keep moving forward. Throughout it all though, she had steadfastly continued to refuse to speak about what had occurred during her Pilgrimage. Her family had eventually stopped trying to get her to open up, accepting that she would talk about it in her own time.

Which of course brought her to the current situation.

Shaela was currently sitting at the head of what passed for a dining table, if a slab of metal bulkhead with four empty supply crates serving as legs and another four functioning as chairs could be considered a proper place to eat. Rissel sat next to her on the right, while her father sat directly across from her at the other end. Both were staring at her silently, desperate to understand. Her sister's eyes, wide behind her light-green visor, her father's equally worried, but also angry behind his dull-yellow one. Not at her though, Shaela couldn't remember the last time her father had been angry at her. No, he was angry at whatever had caused her to freeze whenever her Pilgrimage was brought up.

The three of them had been sitting, practically unmoving for the best part of three hours. It was nearly completely dark outside now, though lights from the makeshift houses that surrounded their own did illuminate the area around the town a small amount. It had been immediately after her realisation that she had marched toward their home, Rissel following in confusion, asking repeatedly how she had managed to levitate the rock. Shaela had then on a whim gone back and picked up the object, which now rested in front of her on the table. She had then announced to the two of them that they needed to talk about her Pilgrimage as soon as her mother got home.

So they had begun waiting.

Her father had wanted Shaela to come home slightly earlier than normal because of… something. Shaela did feel slightly guilty at not remembering what that something was, aside of course from the fact that it had probably been important. What she did remember was that her mother was working late, something about helping a friend with an algorithm for automated farming equipment. The quarians were rebuilding a society, and societies even at their most basic required food. With it being such a pressing concern, many agricultural worlds having been hit by the Reapers, her mother had decided to do what she could to help, given that she had grown up on one of the liveships which had provided the Migrant Fleet with food.

The sound of footsteps outside caused the first real movement from the three quarians since they had first sat at the table. Shaela swallowed heavily. The footsteps were getting louder and louder as the owner drew closer. She had spent enough of her childhood running from her mother and hiding from her while giggling uncontrollably to recognise the sound of her approaching. She took a deep breath to steady herself. It wasn't going to be easy to talk about this, but she needed to.

The door to the house opened, the weak light from outside filtering in before Shaela's mother entered, the light catching the grey decorations of her environment suit. She didn't notice them at first, closing the door behind her gently. No one in the effective shanty town they lived in had automatic doors. It was like they were living centuries in the past, when their ancestors had needed to push or pull doors and had walked in the open without the need for environment suits. Shaela straightened where she sat as her mother noticed the gathering and then approached, head tilted in curiosity.

Shaela watched as her eyes moved to her father, then sister, before finally settling on her before she spoke up, voice nervous but determined.

"Mum? Please sit down. We need to talk about my Pilgrimage."

Silence followed her declaration. Shaela swallowed again as her mother nodded slowly before proceeding to the only available crate, seating herself to her left. The quarian glanced at her assembled family, still not entirely sure how to begin. Part of her had wanted to immediately head to one of Rannoch's makeshift spaceports and get her hands on a ship, but she had been stopped by two things. Firstly, no sane captain would allow their ship to be borrowed at her request on the basis that she 'felt' the presence of another person and believed they were in trouble with no real evidence to support it. Secondly, her family deserved to hear from her why she had decided to leave. Rannoch was still very much in the early stages of being rendered viable and there were still large numbers of wounded. Shaela had every intention of returning once she had found Rassen, but what if she was needed in the meantime? That was an issue that had to be resolved. Matriarch Wessa would need to find someone to take her place at the hospital while she was gone.

Clearing her throat, Shaela decided to get straight to the point. "Someone I met during my Pilgrimage is in trouble," she began, noting with irritation that one of her knees had started bouncing beneath the table as a result of the nervous excitement she felt. "I have to leave Rannoch for a while to go and help him."

Everyone in front of her reacted differently. Rissel went very still, her usual boundless energy seemingly evaporating into thin air. Her mother folded her arms, concerned but also disapproving. Her father though… he was the hardest to read, as he laced his fingers together and leaned forward, elbows resting on the table in front of him.

"I know that we need as many people here as possible," Shaela continued, "so I know I'll have to go alone. I can't completely explain how I know he needs my help or even how I know where to go. I doubt you'd believe me."

Rissel cut in. "What do you mean?" The youngest member of her family asked in concern. "Of course we'd believe you, Shaela. Why wouldn't we?"

"Because… because I can _sense_ that he needs my help." Shaela winced as silence reigned once more. This time the reactions were more alike, the tiny gestures of body language that quarians learned to pick up from a young age indicating that her family had no idea what to make of her statement.

"Shaela," her mother began gently, slowly reaching out to rest one of her hands upon her daughter's as she did so. "What do you mean by _sense_?"

 _There's no going back now. They deserve to know anyway._

"When I left the Fleet to begin my Pilgrimage… I chose Omega as my destination."

"What?"

The response was nearly silent, but carried with it a boiling undercurrent of anger. Shaela turned her eyes from her mother to face her father. "I know now that it was stupid, Dad. But I heard that it was much more difficult to find something special from more popular places like the Citadel or large colonies, so I thought-"

"That you would try to get yourself killed."

"Jaral! That is enough!"

Shaela's mother's voice was firm, but every bit as angry as her father's. The difference was it was aimed at him and not her daughter.

"I agree with you that Omega was a foolish place for her to choose. However, that was well over two years ago, closer to three in fact. We already guessed that Shaela had gone somewhere horrible, but losing your temper with her now just when she's begun to open up about it won't help anything." Her mother turned back to her, squeezing her hand gently. "Go on, Shaela," she quietly prompted. "You decided to go to Omega, what happened next?"

Shaela shook herself out of her shock. Her parents had never argued like that in front of her before. Never. She was surprised by just how much it had shaken her. "I spent a few months on the station seeing if I could find anything. I hoped that I might be able to find someone with medical supplies, or a new kind of treatment compatible with our biology." She glanced over at her father, who had calmed a little but was still visibly angry at the knowledge that one of his daughters had gone to Omega. "One day though, a group of batarians began following me. I don't know why, only that I couldn't lose them."

Shaela steeled herself as she recalled the sound of the batarians' voices as they had closed in on her, despite her best efforts to get away. "One of them threw a metal pipe at me. He managed to hit my ankle and cracked one of the bones there, not that I knew it at the time."

"How did you escape?" Her father's voice was nearly silent, anger now replaced by concern.

"I very nearly didn't. I ended up running into something even more dangerous."

Rissel cut in. "A krogan?"

"A human. He wore armour and a mask though, so I didn't know his species for sure until later."

"That man you mentioned in our vid-call. The one you called 'a very interesting friend,' right?" Rissel asked gently, reaching out to take her other hand.

Shaela nodded, smiling at her sister's show of support. "Yes. I never asked, did you tell Mum and Dad about that call?"

The younger quarian nodded quickly. "Yes," she said, squeezing her hand. "I mentioned that you seemed kind of distant when you talked about him, almost like…"

"Like I was in love with him."

If the room had been silent before, then now it was like no noise had ever occurred within its confines. Shaela felt a rush of nervousness as her family looked at her with surprise, pity, understanding… and fear.

"His name is Rassen," she began. "He saved my life that day. He taught me about things I didn't even know existed." She removed her hand from her sister's grip and gestured at the rock that still sat in front of her. Her family gasped in surprise as the object rose into the air and began spinning lazily. Shaela lowered the rock back to the table with a gentle clunking noise before she continued.

"I'll get to how I did that in a second. Soon after we met, I promised to help him with his own… problem on Omega. Later I saved his life… and he told me he'd guessed I'd fallen in love with him and that he loved me too. I-I offered to show him my face once we had finished with the reason he was on Omega."

Her mother gasped, one hand over her mouthpiece in shock. "Shaela," she whispered, "why did you never mention any of this before, dear?"

Suddenly the world seemed to begin swimming in front of her, and Shaela felt herself being pulled into a hug by the older quarian as she realised she had begun crying. "We… we got separated. I k-knew he wasn't d-dead. B-but I didn't know if I would ever s-see him again." She sniffled slightly. "I can f-feel he's back, Mum."

"How do you know for sure?" Shaela glanced up to see her father walk round the table to gently rest a hand on one of her shoulders, his eyes boring into her own. "It's been years, Shaela. It's obvious that you still care about this man, but how do you know for sure that you can find him now when you couldn't before?"

"Like I s-said. H-he taught me how to feel things. How to s-see the universe in a n-new way. That's how I can move things without touching them. I can sense things in ways I couldn't before. I-I can't really explain it better than that. He would be able to help you understand b-better than m-me."

Her mother gently released her grip, ending the hug as she looked at her husband before returning her attention to her eldest daughter. She seemed to think for a moment, weighing up all that she had heard. "I'm not entirely sure what to make of all this," she admitted, "but it does sound like you need to go and find him."

Rissel gasped loudly as Shaela's father went very still, seemingly having trouble understanding what had just been said.

The grey-suited quarian continued. "You've been different ever since you came back, Shaela. Changed, like a part of you is missing." She gently raised a hand to cup her daughter's cheek as best she could despite the bulky helmet the latter wore. "If you love him like you say you do, then I agree with you. You need to find him."

"I agree, too!" Shaela announced, practically bouncing up and down in her seat in excitement. "I can go with you and it can be like a Pilgrimage!"

"No," their mother interrupted, voice now stern. "With Shaela gone, Matriarch Wessa will be one hand short. You'll need to fill in for your sister while she's gone." She paused for a moment. "You were right about having to go alone, Shaela. I'm still needed here and so is your father."

Shaela nodded to her mother and bit her lower lip as her father growled lowly and paced to the other side of the room before moving to stand in front of her. "The last time you left home," he began, "you came back like your mother said, with a part of you missing. I don't… I don't want to see you get any worse, Shaela. How do you know for sure that this trip won't cause that to happen?"

"I don't, Dad," Shaela whispered. "But I know that this is something I have to do. Please let me."

Her father scoffed. "You don't need my permission." His voice softened. "I just want you to be safe and happy, Shaela. The galaxy is recovering, but it can still be dangerous."

Shaela rose from her chair and threw her arms around him. "I know," she murmured. "The important thing though is that I make it just a bit brighter before I return."

She smiled as her father hugged her back tightly, the latter making a noise of approval. "I don't like the idea of you going alone," he began, "but I agree with your mother that this is something you should do if you believe you must. Have you given any thought as to how you are going to get to wherever you need to go?"

Shaela shook her head. "No. Do you have any ideas?"

The sound of a knock on the door caused everyone to turn their attention to it as Rissel hopped off her seat to answer. As the door swung open, Shaela blinked in surprise at the familiar figure that stood there, blue skin illuminated softly by the lights of the nearby houses.

"Sorry to drop by uninvited," Matriarch Wessa began, "I was visiting a friend nearby and thought I'd let Shaela know that everything from today has been wrapped up aside from a few forms she needs to sign. I forgot to mention those earlier, though I believe it has something to do with another quarian causing a disruption in the reception area." The asari frowned at the scene is front of her once she had finished her explanation. "It appears that after hundreds years, I still haven't mastered good timing."

Shaela smiled widely at the appearance of her teacher. "Matriarch Wessa," she began. "Asari matriarchs normally have vast quantities of personal resources, right?"

Wessa nodded in confusion. "Yes?"

She broke away from her father before walking over to the asari. "I'd like to ask a favour of you."

* * *

The batarian snarled in anger as a spike of pain stabbed through his throat. It had been several hours since his _ally_ had reminded him of his place. He had refused to take a large enough treatment of medi-gel to completely alleviate the pain of the armoured woman's attack. He would finish the treatment soon, but for the moment he needed to focus. Pain would help him to achieve that focus.

He walked to the door which connected his private quarters to the hallway beyond and opened it, the unpainted grey metal sliding aside to reveal two guards standing at each side of the corridor. He nodded to the other two batarians, receiving a respectful nod of acknowledgment from them in return. One of the agreements made with the leader of his _guests_ had been that none of her soldiers could enter this wing of the facility. The only people allowed entrance were himself and his fellow batarians… along with one exception. He was off to meet with that one exception now.

The guards remained at their post as he walked past them, two others detaching from the shadows of the corridor several metres beyond to fall into step behind him. Despite the threat Mandalore had delivered, she had said that she wouldn't betray their alliance at the moment. Even so, it was never a bad idea to present yourself as powerful and in control… even if you were reliant on someone you would never have trusted in a less desperate situation.

He and his escort walked for ten minutes through the claustrophobic metal corridors of the facility, the only illumination being the overhead light fixtures which filled the base with dim light every few metres, before they stopped at a door. Nothing in particular distinguished it from the one which led to his quarters. Indeed, nothing separated it from any of the other doors within the base. Still, he savoured the moment before activating his omni-tool and sending the command for the door to unlock, which it duly did a mere second later, revealing the room beyond. He entered while projecting as much confidence as he could, motioning for his two guards to stay just outside.

The room in which he now found itself appeared to be a combination of a science lab and something out of a science fiction vid. Metal desks jutted out from the wall to his left, several batarians in uniforms of the Hegemony's science division sitting at monitors, eyes alert as they made notes about the information before them. On the other side, sophisticated looking equipment, some of it familiar but much of it not, operated quietly, the different noises combining to produce a low hum which seemed to throb in the back of his head. All of those pieces of machinery were likewise under the scrutiny of batarian scientists. They had been taught about the unfamiliar equipment by the man he had come to talk to.

The man had declined to tell him his name, so he had returned the favour. It all seemed a little petty admittedly, but respect had to be earned. He had been wronged; he was not going to let the guilty party get away with it, even if his revenge was not quite as bloody as he would have preferred. The batarian pushed that particular thought away. Now was not the time to let his anger boil over completely. He began walking toward the middle of the room, where his target stood.

"Doctor, how is it proceeding?" He asked, voice filling the room and causing the attention of the other batarians to fall upon him. He waved a hand dismissively, allowing them to return to their work. "Do you have an estimated time until completion?"

The 'Doctor' as he knew him, turned away from the project in question, eyes narrowed slightly at the interruption. Not for the first time, the batarian found himself staring at the short horns atop the man's head, a feature that coupled with his facial tattoos reminded him that despite how similar he looked at first glance, the man before him was not a human, but rather something else. He didn't know what the species was though, not that he cared enough to ask.

"It is hard to tell with matters like this," the 'Doctor' began, speaking in a very much to the point manner. "If I had to estimate? No more than a week, perhaps less even. Our technology may be more advanced than what you possess but even so, I cannot be any more precise than that."

The batarian nodded stiffly and walked past the man to stand in front of the topic of their conversation. It had been the one thing he had insisted on when the Mandalorians had contacted him. Mandalore had questioned what the point of it even was, but he had managed to persuade her by saying that once he had what he wanted, her people could have it for themselves. He turned back to the man who stood watching him, unable to avoid feeling a small amount of grudging admiration.

"That is better than I dared to hope." He admitted, before turning to leave, only to stop as the voice of the project's leader reached him.

"I heard that Mandalore may have been a little rough with you. I have no qualms with taking a look at your throat while you're here."

The batarian stiffened before marching for the exit, ignoring the rising sense of indignation he felt. This wasn't the first time he had been baited, and he would give the alien no more satisfaction. He still needed the man and his people. He let his anger simmer, but kept it under control. Soon he would be able to vent it, but for now he needed to keep focused on his goals. Pain often helped with that, he reflected again.

* * *

"You need a ship," Matriarch Wessa repeated slowly. "Are you planning to leave Rannoch?"

Shaela nodded in response. "I know that this is a lot to ask for, Matriarch, but I wouldn't be asking if it wasn't important." She took a deep breath before continuing. "It's about _him_."

Wessa looked about to respond instantly before seemingly thinking better of it; mouth closing as she began to mull over the request. Shaela felt her stomach twist uncomfortably at the range of expressions that crossed the asari's face. She was clearly weighing the situation, turning it over in her mind. After a moment of silence, the asari finally spoke.

"Every ship that I own bar one I have allowed to be borrowed to assist in whatever capacity necessary. The exception is the vessel I used to come to Rannoch, a small one person transport. I would have volunteered it for reconstruction efforts as well if it had a cargo hold, moving food and medical supplies being such a concern at the moment." The asari gave Shaela a very serious look. "The _Falsha_ is the only thing I have left of my bondmate. I am very reluctant to part with it."

Shaela felt herself deflate slightly. "I-… very well, Matriarch, I underst-"

"So bring it back in one piece."

"I… I'm sorry?" Shaela asked, disbelieving. "I thought you just said-"

Wessa laughed softly, looking at each quarian in front of her before returning her gaze to Shaela. "I told you to have faith that you would see him again. Far be it for me to then stand in your way. Besides, I was under the impression that piloting a ship is something all quarians pick up at a young age."

"I d-don't know what to say," Shaela breathed, still disbelieving. "I mean, you've taught me so much already and now you're letting me borrow something so precious to you."

Wessa smiled widely. "Yes, well," the oldest occupant of the room by centuries sighed as though remembering a better time. "I know what it's like to be young, Shaela. Asari don't age in the same way as the other races, but we can still look back at when we were maidens and see what we used to be like. If I were a few hundred years younger and in your position… I wouldn't let anything stop me. The way I see it, you'll find a way to get a ship no matter what. I would have at your age, well relatively speaking your age."

Shaela beamed at the asari before nearly knocking her over as she embraced her. "Thank you, Matriarch," she breathed. "Thank you so much."

A quiet cough caused everyone to turn their attention to her father. "It seems as though this matter is decided then." He turned to look at his eldest daughter. "One thing I think that we can all agree on though is that you need as much protection as possible, just in case. Your pistol is a start, but we'll need to find you a good kinetic barrier and plenty of antibiotics, just to be on the safe side."

"I can get my hands on those things," Wessa reassured him. "But with Shaela gone we will be one person down at the hospital. I will need someone to fill in for her."

Rissel began bouncing up and down where she still sat. "We thought about that," the youngest occupant of the room exclaimed excitedly. "I can be Shaela 2.0 for you Matriarch!"

Wessa smirked in amusement. "If you can focus that energy, then you will do nicely." She turned her attention back to Shaela. "Head to the hospital first thing tomorrow morning. I'll give you everything you need and then take you to the _Falsha_. In the meantime I suggest you get plenty of sleep. If memory serves, adventure is not something for those who are overtired."


	6. Chapter 6

**The next chapter is here! As always please feel free to let me know what you think.**

 **Reviews:**

 **AnarionRising27: Glad I got the family right. I was going for worried but supportive. There is something delightfully evil about me being the only one who knows what the Mandalorians are up to...**

 **Once again, thanks for reviewing. I hope you continue to enjoy!**

 **Chapter 6: Unexpected**

The first thing Rassen saw upon awakening was darkness.

The Jedi groaned as he looked around groggily, trying to remember where he was and how he had got there. He had been exhausted, so exhausted. Then there had been pain… what had happened next?

Rassen groaned again before attempting to rise to his feet. As he began to straighten up, he grunted in pain as his head smashed into something hard, a ringing noise filling his ears. He frowned before reaching out a hand to brush his fingertips over the surface in curiosity. As far as he could tell through the material of his glove, it appeared to be made of a metal of some kind, which naturally explained why catching it with his head had hurt so much. Truth be told, he hurt everywhere else as well, but that was more the result of…

Then it all came back to him; the colony, the Mandalorians, the trap.

Now he remembered the moment the bomb had exploded, the sound of it drowning out the rest of the world, the heat of it washing over him like a tidal wave as he was thrown backwards. In the moment he had realised what was about to happen, running entirely on instinct he had reached out to the Force, called upon it for help in a way he had never done before. That he was still alive, albeit aching all over was nothing short of a miracle.

Forcing down any thought of panic as he began to suspect just where he was, Rassen stretched out his arm again; though this time he reached to his left rather than above him. He barely extended it half way before his fingertips made contact with metal again. The Jedi repeated the process to his right, then turned to do the same in front and then behind himself. Each time he felt metal around him, almost like he was in a prison cell, albeit an irregularly shaped one. He was also in total darkness, which made the passage of time impossible to determine. How long had he been unconscious?

He had once told Shaela that being able to draw on the Force was a gift. The senses could be fooled by those who knew what they were doing. Hence, no one should ever blindly rely on the five senses if it could be helped. That being said, the Force couldn't be used to detect metal. Being able to see would certainly be an advantage on this occasion.

 _The omni-tool!_

Despite his still throbbing head and general condition, Rassen couldn't help smiling as he activated the device on his left wrist, silently thankful that it had been developed to be as user-friendly as possible. The glow of the omni-tool was comforting in the darkness as he slowly manoeuvred his arm around, scanning with his eyes for anything important. He had no idea how much wreckage he was under. He needed more information.

He spent a minute or so slowly scanning the few feet of space he had available, before noticing that the glow the omni-tool projected against the metal seemed to shift slightly every time he drew it back towards himself. Rassen frowned at the difference, examining the ground at his feet, which seemed to be comprised of the same metal as the rest of his surroundings. His frown deepened as he glanced back at the omni-tool. The orange light was being only weakly reflected by the walls around him, due to the fact they looked like they had been covered by a thin layer of some kind of powdery substance, probably cement which had been displaced by the explosion.

The reflection of light from the omni-tool was slightly different here, but as far as he could tell there was no difference in the composition of the walls or floor. Rassen looked up; squinting as he tried to detect whatever could be causing the difference. After a few moments, he noticed a slight flaw in the metal above him which caused him to remain hunched over.

Almost directly above him, so small he would likely have missed it if not for the omni-tool, was a gash in the metal. It was likely the result of something heavy colliding with the surface during the explosion had caused the damage. The light from the omni-tool could not be reflected by something that wasn't there, resulting in a small amount of the orange glow escaping outside into the darkness, hence the subtle difference whenever he swept his forearm directly underneath it.

That was his way out.

Rassen smiled for the first time since awaking at the sight. Closing his eyes, the Jedi extended one hand in the direction of the hole, reaching out to the Force as he did so. Slowly, the gap began to widen as he concentrated, a shrill squealing noise accompanying it. He froze at the sound, cursing himself for trying to get out without first establishing whether anyone was nearby. Mandalorians were nothing if not thorough; they might well be combing the ruins now to make sure he was dead.

After making sure to carefully sense for anyone else in his immediate vicinity and finding there was no one nearby, Rassen continued to widen the hole, wincing at the sound it made. After a few minutes the gap was wide enough to allow him to straighten up, which he did, after searching for anyone else though the Force once more.

His head and upper torso now sticking out from the makeshift prison cell in which he had found himself, Rassen called on the Force again and jumped, easily leaping a few metres into the air before landing in a crouch in front of the hole. He breathed heavily, a drop of sweat running down his brow at the effort of having escaped while still far from his best, even though the night air was cool. Nonetheless, Rassen was grateful to be free and grateful to be alive. The Jedi took a deep breath before looking around him, freezing in horror at the sight before his eyes.

The area around where he stood had been completely devastated. The ruined building he had just escaped from had been only one victim among many. A film of ash coloured cement dust coated the remains of what had once been homes, tiny flakes of the grey substance occasionally breaking off to float away in the slight breeze that currently flowed through the area. The buildings beyond several hundred metres from his position were in only slightly better condition, individual thermal detonators having rendered them near useless but not utterly destroyed them. Rassen closed his eyes sorrowfully as he looked away from the devastation. For the first time since he had regained consciousness, Zaressh spoke up, the Sith's voice causing Rassen to feel like he might vomit.

 _As I said earlier, doesn't this look familiar?_

Despite his best efforts to resist it, Rassen found himself being pulled back into a memory.

* * *

The house was burning. Smoke filled his lungs as he struggled blindly through a decrepit hallway, the paint on the walls faded to an off-white which was in the process of peeling away. He hadn't been there when the fire had started, but he had made a promise. Upon hearing that pirates had been sighted in the area near the homestead he had come as fast as he could. He just hoped he was fast enough to save at least someone.

Rassen began coughing nearly uncontrollably as he searched room after room, voice hoarse as he called out to the inhabitants of the small house. His words were snatched away by the crackling fire which covered the walls, the flames seeming to taunt him as he moved past them. He threw the next door open, eyes closing in sorrow at the sight of two still figures, both of them blackened corpses on the floor. Too slow. He had been too slow.

A crashing noise from upstairs caused Rassen to glance up before he continued moving, kicking open another door to find himself staring at a short staircase leading up to the next floor. The Jedi bounded up the stairs as fast as he could, the wooden steps groaning far more than could be considered safe as flames began to lick at them. His coughing quickly grew worse as a result, eyes now beginning to badly sting as well.

He now found himself standing on a small landing, several doors lying on both sides. A scream of agony came from the furthest room on the right, causing Rassen to sprint toward it, barging the door open. A small figure writhed on the ground next to what once had been a bed, hideously burned as it continued to wail at its suffering. Rassen darted forward and gently picked up the child, whispering soft words of reassurance to it that rang hollow even to him. How could everything be all right when the boy's parents lay dead the floor below? How could everything be all right now the child was so burned that even with bacta, the miraculous healing substance which had revolutionised medical technology, the boy would still have horrific scarring for the rest of his life? How could everything be all right when perhaps he could have prevented all of this?

The Jedi turned round at another crashing noise signalling that the staircase behind him had collapsed, blocking the way out. Thinking furiously, Rassen snapped a hand in the direction of the wall which separated the bedroom from the outside world, which exploded outwards as he brought his power to bear against it. The Jedi then sprinted toward the open air, using the Force to gently but quickly lower himself and the child to the ground. He then continued running, desperate to put some distance between them and the burning building at his back.

After a couple of minutes he stopped and lowered the child to the ground. The boy had stopped screaming and was now moaning softly, eyes wide in agony. Rassen closed his own as he reached out with the Force, panic beginning to take hold as he realised how weak the boy was. The Jedi began to desperately try to repair the child's body, snarling at the effort of trying to heal the burned skin, repair the smoke-corrupted lungs, and soothe the crippling pain.

His eyes snapped open as the child grabbed onto the front of his armour, grip strong despite his suffering. The boy's bloodshot eyes were as wide as saucers as they stared into his own, the child seeming to know even before he did that Rassen couldn't save him. His eyes seemed to pass judgement on the man before him even as Rassen cradled him in his arms.

"W-where… were you… Jedi?" The boy whispered, the words cutting to the bone worse than anything Rassen had ever heard. In the year since being separated from Shaela, he had thought it impossible that any moment of his life could be worse than that one, but he had been mistaken.

This moment was even more terrible.

As he cradled the boy, unable to muster a reply to the question, the child's eyes began to roll upwards into his head. Rassen gently released his grip on the small body as he allowed his tears to fall, the droplets of water being absorbed nearly instantly into the ground. He stared at the boy he had failed to save, desperately seeking understanding from the corpse before him.

 _I am so sorry._

* * *

Rassen found himself on all fours as the memory faded. The Jedi's body shuddered violently at the clarity with which he had relived that moment. The child had stared at him in awe when he had first met the family, the boy's mother and father having been almost as impressed upon meeting him. Wherever they were now, Rassen doubted they felt anything less than burning contempt for him. He certainly did.

 _Well that was fun, wasn't it? My favourite part is the bit where-_

"Shut up," Rassen whispered almost inaudibly, voice even quieter than the light breeze which could still be felt in the area. Zaressh's voice faded from his mind, but not before twisting the knife once more.

 _I think we had better check on those new friends of yours sooner rather than later, don't you?_

* * *

Rassen ran quickly from one ruined building to another, senses alert for any sign of life. He had been moving for ten minutes, but had yet to pick up anything through the Force, which was troubling. Mandalorians were held in high esteem for a reason, but they were neither Jedi or Sith. Being able to shield their minds from a Force user through extensive training and strong discipline? Yes. Being able to conceal their presence in the Force entirely? Unlikely.

As the minutes dragged on, Rassen felt increasingly uneasy. He should have seen some sign of the Mandalorians by now. While the ruined buildings certainly provided plenty of cover, they did not make individuals harder to sense. Yet, aside from the obvious destruction, it was like they had never visited Horizon. No corpses in blue armour, no weapons, nothing of Mandalorian origin remained within the colony. They had come to another galaxy, attacked a civilian colony and then just… disappeared. The Mandalorians had all arrived in the same way he had, at least to the best of his knowledge. The most likely reason as to why there was no sign of them was that they had left the planet during the time he had been unconscious, but if that was the case then how could they have managed it? The device seemed as though it could only transport people and whatever could be carried on someone's person. He certainly hadn't seen the Mandalorians attempt to bring any kind of vehicle into contact with whatever the device had been.

Rassen stopped next to what had once been a shop of some kind. Eying the building sadly, he pulled off one of his gloves, the brown material with its faded white plate that protected the back of his hand sliding off easily. He then scooped up a handful of the ash like dust which seemed to be everywhere, though there was less of it here than where the buildings had been entirely demolished. Parting his fingers and allowing the tiny flakes to slip through the spaces between them, Rassen then replaced his glove. As much as he hated to admit it, Zaressh's voice had been right. He couldn't sense anyone in his immediate vicinity, meaning all of the colonists close to him were dead. He needed to get to the three people he had hidden; they stood the best chance of still being alive of anyone within the colony. Rassen was about to continue walking before he remembered.

 _We will not be able to understand one another._

Senses still alert for any sign of danger, he activated his omni-tool, the orange glow engulfing his left forearm. He gazed at the vaguely familiar symbols, attempting to remember what each one meant. If memory served, then simply having the omni-tool attached would allow him to understand the languages of Shaela's galaxy, though he still wasn't sure entirely how that worked. Inwardly he cursed himself for not paying more attention when Shaela had tampered with his first one what felt like a lifetime ago. In truth he had been paying more attention to her, intrigued that someone who had been terrified of him moments prior had then attempted to help him. While he had saved her life, the quarian hadn't reacted quite as perhaps would have been expected; she hadn't run away.

After a couple of minutes of examining the omni-tool, he finally recognised what appeared to be the symbol for the translate function. Pressing it resulted in a seemingly endless list of languages appearing. Glancing around to ensure he was still alone, Rassen then selected the first language he recognised. As much as he had relied on his omni-tool during his first period in this galaxy, (and then through Shaela hers once his own had broken) he had managed to pick up a few words from a variety of languages during his time with the quarian. As far as he could tell, the omni-tool was now set to try and translate everything he said to one of the more common languages used by the humans of this galaxy, which certainly seemed suitable. For the life of him though, Rassen didn't understand why there hadn't been a standard language introduced across as many species as possible, such as Galactic Basic. It probably had something to do with the human/asari way of speaking being so fundamentally different from the way turians spoke, or something similar.

The translation process ready to begin, Rassen pressed on, still on guard just in case as he murmured lines of the Jedi Code under his breath. He just hoped the translation software of his current omni-tool was as fast working as what had been on his original.

The minutes crept by as he drew closer and closer to his target. Slowly but surely though, a creeping sense of dread grew within the Jedi. He should have been able to sense the turian and two children by now if they were still alive, but still could not feel anything through the Force. Dread gave way to panic as he turned a corner and saw the house where they had hidden. Like the other buildings in the area, the Mandalorians had settled for doing the minimum damage necessary to render it useless. The house still stood, but the windows had been blown out, clearly the result of a thermal detonator or something similar.

Time seemed to blur for Rassen as he reached the house, entered it and then stood in front of the makeshift hiding place where he had last seen the three colonists. The armchair had been thrown aside, the piece of furniture lying on the floor several feet away. The piece of flooring beneath it had likewise been tossed aside, revealing the foundations beneath the house. Rassen swallowed heavily as the scent of burned flesh reached him from where he stood. The Jedi felt his legs give out and he collapsed to his knees, brain struggling to process the revelation. He had failed. He hadn't saved anyone. The Mandalorians had somehow found the three people below the house and killed them.

He didn't know how long he spent there beside the hole, mind moving at a sluggish pace as he numbly tried to figure out what to do next. It might have been seconds, it could have been hours. Eventually Rassen slowly picked himself up; moving at a speed expected more from a man several times his age.

"I am so sorry," he whispered, voice barely audible. "I couldn't take you with me, not with them crawling all over the colony. I did the best that I could."

Silence was the only response.

* * *

Several hours passed as Rassen stood there, night slowly giving way to sunrise. It was nearly silent, the only sound being the occasional rustle of his cloak against his armour when the Jedi shifted minutely. To an observer it would have appeared as though he was lost in thought, which was exactly the case. As far as he could tell the Mandalorians had somehow made it off-world. He had no way to pursue them, not that he knew where they had gone in the first place. On top of that, not having a way off-planet also meant that he couldn't try to find-

His thoughts were interrupted by a slight rumbling in the distance. Instantly one of Rassen's hands dropped to his lightsaber, the hilt of the weapon cool to the touch even through the material of his glove. Were the Mandalorians going to do something else to the colony? It was unlikely; they had already rendered every building unusable or simply flattened them. Everyone here was dead aside from him, so he doubted they were attacking again.

The rumbling grew louder, causing Rassen to approach what had once been a window, though the glass littered the ground beneath it. The aforementioned fragments crunched beneath his boots as the Jedi stepped on them, leaning forward to squint at a small dot which had appeared on the horizon.

 _A ship. Mandalorian or something else?_

Within a minute the ship had grown large enough for Rassen to see the vessel more clearly. It was small, probably a privately owned transport rather than anything sophisticated. The vehicle was painted a dull grey, with there being no visible weapons and a distinct lack of armour.

 _Definitely not military. Certainly not Mandalorian. Even assuming they somehow managed to arrange some kind of transport off-world prior to beginning their attack, I doubt any of them would be caught dead in an unarmed ship._

The vessel began to slowly descend, the boxy craft soon disappearing from view as it landed at the opposite side of the colony to where he stood. Rassen nodded slowly to himself as the craft vanished from sight. Whoever was on board, the two of them needed to talk.

* * *

Shaela stood just by the entrance to the hospital, one foot tapping impatiently despite her best efforts to make it stop. Tikkun, Rannoch's sun had just barely begun to rise when she had made the short trek to the medical facility. The sky was still mostly dark, though beams of orange light had begun to filter through the gloom. Shaela barely managed to supress a yawn. She had struggled to get any sleep last night, being too excited and tense for her body to find the relaxed state it needed for her to do so. She had said her goodbye to her mother, father and sister before leaving, all three of them having told her to keep them updated and to stay safe. She had hugged all three of them and promised that she would. With how sudden her decision to leave had been, she knew she had to convince them she would watch out for herself.

The appearance of a familiar figure shook her from her thoughts as Matriarch Wessa appeared from the opposite direction she had, and made her way over to the quarian, moving with the fluid grace all asari seemed to be naturally born with.

"Here," Wessa smiled, offering a simple travelling case light brown in colour to her. "One high-grade kinetic barrier, a few thermal clips to be safe, medi-gel and several doses of every antibiotic you could possibly need."

Shaela took the case gently from the asari's hands, bowing her head slightly in respect. She saw Wessa stiffen slightly in surprise and smiled slightly to herself. Influential matriarchs often went around with an entourage of younger asari who followed them out of devotion and a desire to learn. Bowing in the presence of Wessa showed her that Shaela valued everything her teacher had done for her and held her in the highest respect.

"Thank you again, Matriarch," she breathed. "Just… thank you."

Wessa waved away the thanks with a wry smile. "You're welcome, Shaela, but it may be better to hold your thanks until I've given you a firm warning about bringing back my ship in one piece. Speaking of which…" At this point the asari trailed off before turning to face the rising sun, its dim rays causing her normally purple skin to appear lilac where they struck it. "Are you still sure you want to leave immediately? Is there anything you need to do before setting off?"

Shaela shook her head. "No. I've said goodbye to my family and while I'll miss them terribly, this is something I have to do. It can't wait, Matriarch. Something is terribly wrong, but I don't know what."

Wessa looked back at her sharply. "Does your family know that you think you could be heading straight into danger?"

"T-they suspect," the quarian stammered. "I did tell them that Rassen needs help, but I may have left out that it could be dangerous." She looked away from the asari's piercing glare. "I haven't really told them much more than I've told you. I thought that if they knew I suspected I could be heading into danger then-"

"They wouldn't let you go."

"Yes."

Wessa sighed before turning to look back at the rising sun. After what felt like an age, the asari finally spoke. "Please inform me if anything goes wrong, Shaela. All of my resources are tied up at the moment in various parts of the galaxy, but I'll do my best to help if you run into serious trouble. If you damage my ship however…"

"I'm not sure I want you to finish that sentence, Matriarch."

Wessa grinned. "Then you're as smart as I've always thought, Shaela. Now," at this the asari began to walk away from the quarian, who stood there in confusion. "I believe I have a ship to show you?" Wessa smirked as Shaela jogged over to join her.

* * *

Rassen frowned to himself as he examined the small vessel from where he currently stood peering around the corner of one of the colony's devastated buildings. It had been several minutes since the vessel which currently stood a mere ten metres away had landed, but the pilot was nowhere to be seen. The Jedi closed his eyes as he reached out to the Force. Whoever it was, they were nearby, but he couldn't tell exactly where they were. That was unusual; with their being the only two people in the colony, he should have been able to pinpoint the newcomer's exact location. That he couldn't meant that whoever they were, they were extremely strong-willed.

His frown deepened as he concentrated harder. He couldn't sense any malice from them, just sorrow and determination. Sorrow about what had happened to the colony and determination to find out what had happened. Given that he hadn't been able to save anyone and didn't know why the Mandalorians had attacked, that made two of them.

Rassen pushed away from the corner of the building and walked towards the ship, making no further attempts at subtlety. He stopped a couple of metres away from it as he felt the presence shift slightly. Whoever they were, they had noticed him, which meant they could probably see him as well.

The Jedi turned away from the ship to face the devastated colony before he spoke, voice calm despite the events that had transpired.

"Whoever you are, I'm going to assume you are here to investigate what happened. I know who is responsible. I know how they did this, but not why. I have no way off this world. I propose that in exchange for transportation off this planet so I can try to stop them from doing anything like this again, I tell you everything I know." He paused to allow his words to sink in. "Are you interested?"

A sudden flickering at the edge of his vision caused Rassen to look to his right as a figure dressed in a form-fitting black and grey bodysuit appeared suddenly. The woman was rather short but had an athletic build, clearly being someone who was acquainted with danger, given that the weapon she was currently pointing at him didn't waver as she stared at him, upper face concealed beneath the shadow cast by her black hood. As he watched, she lowered the weapon, a sub-machine gun he believed the inhabitants of this galaxy called it, before tilting her head at him in in a way that told him she had made a decision.

"I'm interested," the strange woman began, her voice carrying a trace of an accent Rassen was unfamiliar with, not surprising considering that he was not native to this galaxy. "Start talking."


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: So far this is the hardest chapter I've ever written. Not for lack of interest, but rather because of just how surprisingly difficult it turned out to be. While I am overall happy with it, as always please feel free to let me know what you thought.**

 **I've also just changed the rating for this story to M. Given that in some ways this one is already darker than False Masks, it seemed the safe thing to do.**

 **Reviews:**

 **AnarionRising27: Thanks. This chapter was probably the hardest to write so far given there were so many different elements. Glad to hear that it turned out all right! More will come…**

 **JustWriteAnon: It's always good to hear that I'm improving. I keep trying to get better, so naturally it means a lot when people notice. Thank you particularly for elaborating via PM as to what those improvements are. I do plan to go back to False Masks (and this story once it's done) and fix it up so to speak. I won't change anything major of course, but I will subject the whole thing to a thorough proof-reading now I have a bit more experience.**

 **I completely agree with you that Kasumi rocks… if anyone else is reading this response (seabo76, I haven't forgotten that you like her too) then maybe let everyone else know if you like Kasumi via a review? *Coughs unsubtly***

 **Chapter 7: Discussion**

"Gladly," Rassen nodded, "but I would rather you put away your weapon before I do." The mysterious newcomer stared at him in suspicion for a moment before she sighed and stowed the sub-machine gun at her hip, the weapon folding down to a more manageable size in the way Rassen had come to expect from the firearms of this galaxy. He used the woman's momentary distraction to examine her more closely. Whoever she was, the practised ease with which she handled her weapon indicated that she was as he had expected; experienced when it came to combat. Less important but still intriguing were what appeared to be a pair of tattoos, purple in colour, one on her lower lip and another just below it. Her eyes were almost invisible, but seemed to shine out of the dark confines of her hood as they bore into his own, gaze never wavering as she watched him with the same caution as he did her.

 _This one can certainly handle herself very well indeed. In all honesty though, there is one very entertaining way to find out just how well she can fight…_

Rassen ignored Zaressh's musings as he continued to observe the stranger, who had now crossed her arms, obviously impatient for the promised explanation.

"I'm waiting."

"So am I," he replied.

The woman gave a short laugh at his response. "There's no way I'm going to promise you a lift when I don't know the first thing about you." Rassen could have sworn she smirked slightly, despite the seriousness of the situation. "If you tell me why I should believe you and what you know then maybe I will."

 _You could just kill her and take the ship. I can make it easier for you if you want._

The woman's form seemed to flicker before his eyes, switching rapidly between her and a significantly taller and infinitely more imposing figure. The second person wore a mask inscribed with runes of the dark side, black armour, and a familiar cylinder on their belt. Once again Rassen gave off no outward reaction.

 _No. Leave. Me. Alone._

The presence faded and he couldn't prevent himself from releasing a slight sigh of relief. The woman noticed instantly, hand twitching almost imperceptibly towards her hip. Rassen slowly raised both of his hands to show he meant no harm, looking over the woman's shoulder in the direction he had approached her ship from.

"I am unsure exactly how long ago, but Horizon was attacked by a group known as the Mandalorians." His voice cut out as he tried to find the words to continue. "The colonists have all been killed. I tried to save them, but there were too many and-"

Rassen scowled to himself. How many people dead? Hundreds? Thousands more likely and here he was making excuses. He had not been strong enough, that was the ultimate reason why everyone, even the turian and two children lay dead.

The strange woman evidently picked up on the pain he felt as she pressed for more information, her own voice softening as she gently prompted him.

"Who are the Mandalorians?"

Now that was a difficult question to answer.

She would never believe him. Force, Rassen still found it difficult to wrap his own head around it some days. Intelligent life in other galaxies? The ability to cross from one to another? It was something that had to be seen to be believed. An idea rose in his mind but he quickly dismissed it. He had connected his mind to Shaela's, shown the quarian the truth of his words when he had realised the reality of his own situation nearly three years ago. Potentially, he could do the same with this woman.

Despite the simplicity of the approach, he had rejected it for several reasons. The first time he had found himself in this situation, he had just saved Shaela's life, sided with her over a woman who had slandered her people, and healed a debilitating injury. The quarian had been willing to grant him a small amount of trust, though she had naturally been nervous and suspicious about his request. The situation now was very different. Worse still, Zaressh had revealed that his actions had created a Force bond between Shaela and himself. The Sith had even gone so far as to claim that all of Shaela's actions since meeting him had been the result of the connection between them. Knowing what he did now, he had no desire to affect the life of the woman who stood before him against her knowledge… nor did he have much desire for her to affect his own.

So he had to lie. Or at the very least avoid all of the truth.

"Mandalorians," he began, "are a warrior society that consists of members from many different races. They often find themselves employed as mercenaries or enforcers, given that they tend to be well-trained and equipped."

The woman went very still, clearly arriving at a conclusion he himself had not come to. "That would explain…" she breathed, voice barely audible she was so quiet.

Rassen tilted his head at her and frowned. "Explain what?"

The woman shook her head before refocusing her attention on him. "When I arrived in system," she explained, "there was a signature on the edge of my ship's sensors. It was only there for the briefest of moments, but then it vanished. I managed to recognise the type of vessel before it did though."

Rassen was now the one to cross his arms, posture calm but deadly serious. This was likely how the Mandalorians had managed to get off-world. Whoever she had detected, they were likely either assisting the Mandalorians on a one-off basis, or more likely considering they seemed to need whatever manpower they could get, a long-term one. For a moment his mind returned to the Mandalorian woman he had left unconscious hours away from the colony. In spite of everything her people had done, a part of him still hoped she had managed to link up with them and been sent home. Whoever she was, she didn't deserve to be so far from where she belonged.

"What kind of ship?" He asked, his voice seeming to echo off the destroyed buildings around them.

His blood seemed to boil as the woman opposite him gave her answer, arms dropping to her sides and voice soft as she looked at him.

"Batarian."

 _The woman slowly backed away from him, hands raised in a non-threatening manner, pleading softly in her unfamiliar language. There was a musical lilt present to her words, along with a slight distortion from speaking through a helmet._

Rassen nearly laughed in disbelief. The Force certainly had a sense of humour; batarians had attacked him and Shaela the first time he had found himself in this galaxy, why wouldn't they be involved now?

"That does not surprise me," he said, voice calm now only through tremendous effort. "In fact it makes perfect sense."

The woman stared at him in curiosity. "You've had trouble with batarians in the past?" She ventured.

Rassen felt some of his anger bleed through. "More than trouble," he confirmed. "I have not encountered any for quite some time however."

The woman nodded slowly, clearly interested but unwilling to pry for the moment. "How did they do all of this?" She asked, still suspicious as she gestured at the devastation around them. "Obviously they attacked and then left, but I don't recognise the kind of damage done to the buildings. The burn marks and type of structural damage are inconsistent with anything I've seen."

"They detonated a kind of explosive only they know how to produce within each building in turn in the case of most of the colony. Their firearms are likewise unique to them. One section came off far worse though; the buildings there have been almost completely levelled."

"Why?" The grey and black suited woman asked, her frown deepening.

Rassen felt his anger build again as he remembered. "The Mandalorians suspected that I was within the colony and had a rough idea as to my location. They decided to detonate more powerful explosives there in order to deal with me."

"It sounds like they're afraid of you."

Rassen snorted at that. "Afraid? No, they probably relished the idea of killing me. As far as I can tell, they believe they have succeeded. I was too close to one of the bombs when it detonated and was knocked unconscious by the blast. That is why I am unsure how long ago exactly it was when they first arrived. When I came to, all traces of them had vanished, including the bodies of the ones I managed to kill and all of their equipment. As far as I know, they have no ships of their own." He nodded to her. "Hence the batarian connection."

The woman opposite him crossed her arms before narrowing her eyes. "How do I know that you're telling me the truth then? How do I know that weren't involved in the attack?" She asked, voice soft but somehow also like steel as she questioned him. "You're telling me that I only have your word to go on."

Rassen nodded, but did not back down, meeting the woman's stare unflinchingly. "My word and the damage around us. A lot of innocent people have died and for all I know, this could happen again." He took a deep breath before continuing. "You came here to find out what happened, right?" At her nod, he continued. "What occurred here is an atrocity, but one I will not allow to be repeated. If telling you everything I know will help to prevent that then I gladly will." The Jedi barely managed to prevent himself from wincing at his lie.

The woman broke the stalemate first, glancing away from him to gaze sorrowfully at the devastation around them. "Say I believe you," she ventured, "since everything you've said so far is possible, though unlikely. Why do you think telling me will help anything? Why deliberately get my attention as you have?"

Rassen took a moment to consider his answer. "I have always been… rather good at judging people," he began. "You have come here alone, presumably as a scout since your ship is small and relatively defenceless. I take it that someone else is aware that something happened here but is unsure as to what?"

"Yes," the woman responded, "but why would guessing that convince you to tell me all of this?"

Rassen smiled sadly, gesturing once more to the destroyed colony. "The obvious answer is that I am stranded here with no way off-planet," he admitted. "But I think the real reason as to why I'm telling you all of this is because like I said, I am a good judge of character. The way you look at what happened here… it horrifies you as much as it does me."

"Very perceptive," the woman took a few steps closer, causing Rassen to blink in surprise. She stood only a few metres away from him now and the height difference between them had become more obvious as a result. Her head barely came up to his chest. Shaela was noticeably taller than her, possibly by a few inches in fact. She stared into his eyes once more, seeming to examine him like some kind of logic puzzle she was trying to work out the solution to.

"A friend asked me to investigate what happened here," she continued, only the lower half of her face and her eyes visible beneath her hood despite the short distance that separated them. "For the moment I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and say I don't think you're lying to me."

Rassen nodded slowly. "Good to know."

"That being said, I still need to take a proper look around myself." One hand went to her left forearm as her omni-tool activated, the familiar orange light appearing.

"Of course," Rassen pushed down the small amount of frustration that had risen. Of course she needed to see it all for herself; she had not been on Horizon for nearly as long as he had. He also had the advantage of being able to sense no malice from her and so knew she could be trusted. As far as she was concerned though, he could be hiding ill intentions beneath his normally calm exterior. "I would like to help you if that is acceptable."

The woman paused as she gave him a calculating look. Rassen frowned as he felt a pang of loss from her before it vanished so quickly he almost thought he had imagined it. He raised an eyebrow in surprise as she looked away in thought before turning back to face him, a subtle smile pulling at her lips. "I had a friend once who never turned down help, even when it came from the unlikeliest of sources," she explained. "Do you have a name, big guy?"

Rassen allowed a small smile to take over. "Rassen. Rassen Voratt."

The hood still did nothing to hide the woman's smile as it widened, now closer to a grin than a smirk. "Nice to meet you, Rassen. I'm Kasumi Goto." Kasumi inclined her head in the direction he had first approached her ship from. "Shall we?"

* * *

She could still feel him.

Shaela frowned to herself as she concentrated on the sensation right at the edge of her perceptions. Rassen still felt… off, for lack of a better term. That being said, the human did seem calmer than before, which she hoped meant whatever was troubling him had gone for the moment. The quarian shook her head slightly to clear it, the case which she had hung by a convenient strap on her shoulder swinging gently as the words of the asari next to her filtered through to her consciousness.

"Thinking about him again?"

Shaela groaned quietly, prompting a laugh from Wessa as the asari gestured for them to go right. They had been walking for only a few minutes so far, the hastily constructed homes of the makeshift town on each side as they proceeded away from the hospital. The two of them had lapsed into a comfortable silence after first setting off and that had endured. Well, until now that is.

"Is it really that obvious?"

"Yes."

"Great."

"It is." Shaela blinked and looked over at the asari in surprise at how serious the latter's voice had become. Wessa stared back at her impassively before slowly cracking a smile. She then turned her gaze back in the direction they were going, the first rays of the sun lighting their way. The younger woman was about to ask what the older had meant before the asari chuckled and elaborated.

"It's good because it means hopefully you will treat the _Falsha_ with due deference. You won't be able to make it to your boyfriend if you damage the mass effect core."

Shaela groaned again before raising a hand to her forehead. "Don't mention the word 'boyfriend'. That particular word brings up bad memories."

"Would you prefer me to call him your bondmate?"

The quarian blushed so fiercely she feared for a moment that her visor would catch fire. "Keelah, no!" She trailed off for a moment as she looked at her feet awkwardly. "We… we never discussed bonding."

Wessa was grinning now; the asari's smile reminding Shaela unpleasantly of a krogan who had just been challenged to a wrestling match by a far smaller opponent. "So how far along did the two of you get?" She asked, turning her gaze back to the quarian.

"Matriarch!"

"Come now, Shaela. You told me the two of you spent almost every waking moment together for... what was it? Two months or so? Obviously you weren't together for all of that time, but something juicy must have happened between the two of you."

"How much longer?" Shaela blurted out, desperate to change the subject.

"Another couple of minutes. Now, did anything interesting happen? Kissing would have been difficult of course… though that will hopefully be a little easier in the future." At this the asari winked, causing Shaela to blush again. One of the main concerns the quarians had begun tackling after colonisation had started on Rannoch was improving their immune systems. They had met with a little success so far, but were still years away from being able to consign their environment suits to the annals of history. Wessa, clearly enjoying the younger woman's discomfort, pushed on. "That being said," she smirked, "tell me you displayed some form of affection towards each other."

The quarian crossed her arms as she kicked a small rock out of her path, the object skittering across the ground for several metres and leaving a trail of dust in its wake before stopping. "We hugged. Satisfied?"

"No, hugs are something you can just as easily give to friends or family. I am letting you borrow my ship, Shaela. I expect something a bit more interesting in return."

Shaela glared at the asari before returning her gaze to her feet. "Like you said, kissing wasn't an option… not properly anyway. We sort of, um, made up for it by trying to do it with my helmet on."

"Anything else?"

"We slept together a few times."

There was a moment of silence before Shaela realised how her response could have been interpreted.

"N-not like that! We slept in the same bed and there may have been some hugging and-" The quarian was cut off as Wessa burst into laughter, the asari practically bent double as she stopped walking. Shaela buried her face in her hands as tears began to run down her teacher's face, the asari sinking to her knees as she continued to laugh.

Eventually Wessa calmed down enough to unsteadily rise to her feet. "You-your voice, Shaela. Y-you sounded so worried, like you had committed some kind of crime." The asari eventually managed to gain complete control over her voice, though she still grinned at the younger woman.

The quarian slowly removed her hands from her visor, now convinced it was in serious danger of catching fire. "Please tell me you know enough for now," she begged.

Wessa nodded, chuckling to herself as she pointed to a series of huge metal buildings just beyond the last few houses that Shaela would have already noticed, had she not been too busy looking downwards and hiding her face. "No, but we have almost arrived, so I'll drop it for the moment."

* * *

The quarian and asari entered the nearest section of the spaceport, which like everything that had been built on Rannoch over the last few years had been thrown together. As a result, the different parts resembled huge metal boxes, functionality having taken priority over aesthetic quality. Shaela followed Wessa as the latter made her way to a desk opposite them, passing a dozen different hallways before greeting the receptionist and activating her omni-tool. The male quarian nodded from where he sat and Wessa turned towards a hallway to their immediate left before the two of them began to walk down it. The hallway itself was as basic as the exterior of the structure, bare metal walls with no decoration of any kind on each side leading to a door at the other end. The asari matriarch waved her omni-tool again and the door slid open. Wessa turned back to the quarian and beckoned for the younger woman to follow her in.

The two of them entered the tiny hanger and Shaela felt her jaw drop at the sight before her. A small ship sat in the centre of the room, its elegant curved design contrasting sharply with the utilitarian and boxy of shape of where it was housed. The vessel was coloured a gentle blue, like the oceans of Thessia. Shaela blinked as she realised that they may well have served as inspiration. The quarian slowly walked around the vessel, examining it in awe. The craft was of an older design, one which was no longer in production as far as she was aware, but had clearly been lovingly maintained. The paint lacked any noticeable blemishes, but as far as she could tell, the vessel had seen frequent use over the years. Between its beauty and obvious functionality, it was obvious the ship was extremely important to someone.

Shaela slowly turned to look over at her teacher, who had not moved since the two of them had entered the hanger, the latter's attention fixed on the ship. As if sensing that Shaela's eyes were on her, Wessa turned to meet the quarian's gaze. Shaela swallowed as she noticed that the asari had tears in her eyes.

"Bring it back in one piece," Wessa croaked, the normally soothing voice of the centuries old asari for once hoarse.

Shaela nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Nothing needed to be said, she could tell just from her examination of the ship what it meant to the matriarch.

The _Falsha_ was as Wessa had said, the last thing she had left of her quarian bondmate. The design of the ship was unmistakeably asari, the smooth contours and elegant design leaving no doubt as to which race the vessel owned its origins to. The name though was quarian. _Falsha_ was an old word, out of use, much like the ship itself. It was a name which had once been used to describe one of Rannoch's major rivers, though the river itself had been renamed many times even before the geth had rebelled and driven the quarians from their homeworld. The ship represented the union between Wessa and her bondmate, between asari and quarian. The design and colour represented the asari, but the name and presumably maintenance of the vessel when Wessa's bondmate was still alive had come from a quarian.

"What was their name?" Shaela asked quietly, her question being the first thing to disturb a silence that had lasted for more than a minute.

Wessa swallowed heavily before gathering the strength to respond. "Her name was Neraio'Hase. The two of us met when we both stupidly ended up joining a mercenary group. This was centuries before the Morning War, so of course there was no Pilgrimage back then. Her parents had kicked her out for causing trouble, while I honestly just wanted to get away from home and explore the galaxy."

The asari nodded to the ship opposite her. "When you're an asari," she murmured, tears beginning to slide down her cheeks, "it's easy to think of a span of one-hundred or two-hundred years as relatively little time. A part of me thought we would be together indefinitely." She shook her head, beginning to sob now, and Shaela quickly moved to hug the older woman, who clung to her desperately.

"Eventually though things began to go wrong," the matriarch whispered, "I loved her no matter how old she got, but as the decades passed I stayed more or less the same while she began to get weaker and weaker. Eventually she passed on. Natural causes and she had lived a good life. She… she told me she had no regrets. I asked her if perhaps we should have had children. Neraio just smiled and told me that I had always been enough for her." At this Wessa pulled away from Shaela, who had begun crying just as much as the asari towards the end of the latter's story.

The matriarch patted the quarian's shoulder before looking back at the _Falsha_. "I never… never was quite able to move on. Most asari always remember those they loved who died long before them and treasure them. Eventually though, they find new love with someone else. After Neraio though, I simply had no interest in finding another bondmate." Wessa turned back to Shaela, raw pain still exposed as she spoke. "Just bring my ship back, Shaela."

The quarian nodded again, not trusting herself to speak as tears ran down the inside of her visor. Wessa smiled sadly before pointing to the vessel in question. "Come on then," the asari announced. "While I don't doubt your ability to pilot a ship, I know you're not familiar with this particular model. I'll show you how it works. It was only designed for one person, so your human will probably have to sit on the floor of the cockpit."

* * *

"So… how did you first bump into these Mandalorians then?"

Rassen shook himself from his thoughts in order to respond to Kasumi's question. Glancing from the piece of warped metal he had been carefully examining in order to fix his gaze on the woman who currently stood about ten metres away, he returned it to where it had previously been sitting on the ground before responding.

"An old acquaintance told me they were up to something. I knew of them by reputation, but only encountered them for the first time very recently." He watched as Kasumi ran a scan on a nearby house, the orange light of the omni-tool washing over the grey metal of the building. "That was enough of a reason for me to stow aboard their ship in order to see where they were going."

The grey and black clad woman turned away from the building before beginning to walk down the narrow street they were currently in. Rassen easily caught up with her, silently impressed by how even if he strained to listen, Kasumi's steps were completely silent. He himself could be quiet when the situation called for it, but the petite woman was like a ghost as she casually made her way around pieces of rubble with seemingly no effort and without paying attention.

When Kasumi hummed in interest, he continued. "I was discovered when we arrived here on Horizon and so had to distance myself from the main force." He swallowed heavily, Kasumi glancing over at him with a sympathetic expression on her features. "I didn't realise what was happening until it had already begun. I managed to kill several Mandalorians and thought I had managed to save three colonists, like I mentioned earlier. I was wounded during the process though and had to hide in order to heal myself. I didn't realise until it was too late that the place I had picked to hide was somewhere they had hidden a bomb."

Kasumi nodded as she scanned another building, this one a storage facility uncannily like the one he had hidden in. Although her attention was elsewhere, the strange woman's voice was still soft as she moved closer to the building in order to peer through its blown-out windows. "That's the point when you were knocked unconscious?"

"Yes."

She nodded before cutting off the scan and continuing on. The two of them walked for another couple of minutes before both turned a corner and stopped at the sight about twenty metres away from them. Even from that distance, both of them recognised a corpse when they saw one. Truth be told, they had been fortunate to get this far without finding a body, probably as a result of the Mandalorians preferring to kill the colonists within their homes rather than dragging them outside and shooting them.

Silently, the two of them approached the body, which Rassen recognised as once belonging to a middle aged human woman. He crouched down upon reaching her. Two burn marks were present on the back of her clothing where she had been shot. The Jedi couldn't prevent his hands tightening into fists. "Shot in the back," he muttered, before glancing away in the direction of the nearest building, a small pre-fabricated home. He looked back at the body. She had probably had children, a family. All of them were dead now, dead because he hadn't been able to save them.

 _We can agree on that at least, Rassen._

"That's enough." He looked over at Kasumi in surprise, having momentarily forgotten the woman who stood next to where he crouched. His companion's face was ashen. She slowly turned to meet his questioning glance. "The injuries don't match the kind of damage inflicted by any weapon I've ever seen. The current situation being what it is, I doubt this was the result of one of the main players, and very few pirate operations would be so organised as to wipe out a colony so efficiently." She nodded to herself. "I need to let my friend know what happened here immediately, and I want to get as far away from this planet as possible. You can tell me anything else you know once we've cleared the atmosphere."


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: First up, sorry for the wait. Life got busy,** _ **really**_ **busy, and as a result, I haven't been able to get this chapter out until now. Fortunately it is now that magical time of year when I have more free time, so the next few chapters shouldn't take nearly as long to release, assuming there are no complications.**

 **Reviews:**

 **AnarionRising27: You got it! The plot is moving along nicely so far in my humble opinion. Thank you yet again for the constant encouragement, it really does keep me going!**

 **JustWriteAnon: Good to know, thanks. Kasumi and Rassen have only just met, so I didn't want either one to come across as completely trusting the other right out of the gate (particularly Kasumi, she doesn't have the Force after all). I'll watch for missing commas going forward. Please continue to let me know if you have anything to say about this story as it progresses.**

 **Chapter 8: Familiar**

Rassen watched the stars drift by through the small viewport built into the wall he currently sat next to. It had been almost an hour since he and Kasumi had taken off from Horizon's surface, the two of them leaving the devastated colony behind. While he was currently in the cargo area just behind the cockpit, the dark-suited woman was at the front of the ship, flying directly for the mass relay that was their way out of the system.

Despite her earlier statement, Kasumi had yet to ask him to divulge everything else that he knew. Rassen had been grateful for the unexpected delay; since it had allowed him to formulate an answer for virtually everything he thought she might ask, without telling the mysterious woman anything she would find unbelievable. As much as the Force seemed to be telling him he could trust her, they had still only just met. Remaining mostly honest was the best route, though he still knew he couldn't tell her everything. That being said, there was certainly a drawback to having such a long delay.

He had too much time to think.

Several issues seemed to press in on the Jedi from different directions, each one occupying his attention for a short while before his mind would shift to the next, the different concerns clamouring for his complete focus but unable to gain it. That in itself had been enough to give him a headache, but it was made substantially worse by how he didn't know where to begin with each issue, meaning his mind seemed to be caught in a never-ending whirlpool of confusion.

Most of the different problems stemmed from the current situation. What could the Mandalorians and batarians want that would have caused them to ally? How had the former discovered how to transport people between galaxies? What kind of resources did the two groups have, combined and separate from one another? Why had the Mandalorians attacked Horizon? Where were they now?

One thing jostled for his attention more than anything else though, and while it was disconnected from the others, it still caused Rassen the most trouble. But then, personal problems were most often the hardest to find a solution to.

What should he do concerning Shaela?

The Jedi rose from where he had been sitting on a sofa, in order to stand directly in front of the viewport, gaze never moving from it as the stars continued to drift past. His original plan before finding out that the Mandalorians had found a way to this galaxy had been to return and find Shaela as quickly as possible. That had been his sole driving force for more than two years. There was only one small problem however.

He hadn't expected for others to make the trip as well.

People had died. Normal people, good people, innocent people. More would likely follow if he simply ignored the Mandalorian threat and went looking for Shaela. Despite how much he missed her, deep down Rassen knew that he would never forgive himself if innocent people got hurt because he had walked away. Shaela would never forgive him either.

There was also the fact that it had been so long since he had last seen her. As far as the quarian knew, Zaressh had transported the two of them back to their galaxy and then killed him. As far as she knew, he would never find a way to return to her. After such a length of time, perhaps Shaela had accepted that they would never see each other again and moved on. Perhaps she was happy with someone else. The thought seemed to twist a knife through his heart. Rassen wanted her to be happy. That came before all other priorities as far as Shaela was concerned. That being said, the idea that she might have found somebody else…

"You had that look a few times earlier."

Rassen nearly jumped in surprise, unable to keep from marvelling slightly at the near-silent approach of the ship's other occupant. He saw Kasumi smirk as the door to the cockpit closed behind her, obviously enjoying the fact she had managed to catch him off-guard. He returned her gaze for a moment, noticing that she seemed to have composed herself in the time since they had left the surface of Horizon. Rassen glanced back out the viewport, mind still largely concentrated on Shaela.

"Did I?"

"Yep," the strange woman replied, making a popping noise as she did so before sitting down where he had been previously. Kasumi then raised both of her legs onto the sofa so that her feet were positioned at the opposite end to the rest of her body as she leaned towards him, elbows resting on her knees. "It was only for a few brief moments, but you had the same expression." She seemed to think for a moment before continuing. "It's like you're a million miles away, focused on something that bothers you."

Rassen nodded, though he did not turn around. "Very perceptive," he admitted.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

He laughed at that, now turning to face Kasumi properly. "I barely know you," he said slowly, "and you barely know me. I thought you were more concerned about everything I know regarding the Mandalorians anyway?" The Jedi frowned for a moment. "If you're here then who is flying the ship?"

Kasumi's smirk returned as she noticed his attempt to distract her. "Relax, a VI is handling that. I don't trust it to do anything complicated, but it can fly us in a straight line just fine." She then switched back to the previous topic. "Who you are, where you're from, all of that is important, but so is whatever's bothering you."

"I do not wish to discuss it."

The smirk widened. "Is it embarrassing?"

"No."

"Hmm, does it have something to do with a family member?"

"No."

"A friend?"

"No. Please stop trying to gue-"

"A girlfriend?" The smirk transformed into a grin as Rassen felt himself freeze for a split-second, unable to respond. He noticed Kasumi lace her fingers together before she pressed for more information. "You can tell me, I won't judge."

"That I highly doubt."

"But you're still going to tell me."

"Why would I do that?"

The ship's owner gave him a look as though he had just told her he had spent the last half an hour working out that they were in space. "Because you've been alone for a long time," she said quietly, "and you're sick of it. A part of you just wants someone to talk to." The woman's smile was sad now as she looked up at where he still stood unmoving. "It's obvious from the way you walk, the way you don't want to make eye contact with me but occasionally do anyway."

"I take it back," Rassen breathed, "amazingly perceptive." He frowned for a moment in thought before walking over to the sofa; Kasumi drawing her legs in so there was room for him to sit. Rassen ignored her for a moment, eyes staring directly ahead of him, gaze boring into the wall opposite where they sat.

 _Am I really going to do this? I've known her for mere hours, and we sent most of that going through the colony, rather than talking._

The truth was though that Kasumi was right. He was sick and tired of years of being alone, of years spent in near-isolation trying to find a way back to this strange galaxy. Despite her bizarre choice of clothing, she was friendly, and he could sense no deception from her at the moment, just curiosity. He nodded slowly before turning to face the woman to his left.

"Her name is Shaela," he began, just mentioning the quarian by name taking more effort than he had expected. "She and I were not together for long, but we got separated." He shrugged slightly, turning his gaze back to the wall. "I haven't seen her since then."

"How long ago was this?" The woman next to him asked softly.

His vision began to blur slightly and Rassen snarled upon realising the cause. "More than two years," he muttered, wiping his eyes quickly. "I've been trying to find her since then." He looked back over to see that Kasumi had paled slightly, mouth opening and closing as she tried to think of a response.

"T-that's, well…"

"Yes."

An uncomfortable silence lingered between the two of them for a few moments, neither one of them venturing to break it. A quiet cough from Kasumi eventually caused Rassen to glance back over at her as she shifted position slightly, clearly searching for a way to dissolve the awkwardness between them.

"So… why do you wear a hood then?"

Rassen couldn't help laughing at the unexpectedness of the question. "One answer would be that as it is a part of my cloak, I might as well make use of it. In truth though, I wear what I do because it is part of the traditional dress where I am from… aside from the armour, that is only worn when conflict is expected."

He could tell he had piqued the interest of the woman next to him, and not only because her 'friend', whoever that was, wanted an in-depth report from her. "Traditional dress?" She asked curiously, "Are you part of a religious group of some kind then?"

"Sort of," Rassen admitted after a moment of thought, "the members of the order I am a part of do have strong spiritual beliefs, one of which is that we should help others. Often this takes the form of protecting the innocent against those who would do them harm."

"Ah," Kasumi said, nodding in understanding. "It makes a bit more sense now. That's why you were on Horizon when it was attacked, wasn't it?"

"Yes."

"If you're so interested in stopping the Mandalorians and batarians though, then shouldn't you call for backup? I mean, galaxy-wide communications have been getting worse for some reason, even though the comm buoys are back online, but eventually your message would get through."

Rassen paused before responding, formulating his words carefully in his mind before replying. "I was sent out alone," he lied, "and told that I would receive no support. In the event that the scale of the threat was too great for me to defeat on my own, I was told to seek out other help."

Kasumi nodded slowly. "Meaning me," she said thoughtfully.

"Exactly," he nodded back, before then asking a question of his own. "This 'friend' that you mentioned earlier… do you think they could do something about the Mandalorians and batarians?"

Kasumi's lazy smile told Rassen he had asked a question which to her had an obvious answer. "Absolutely, she has a proven track record when it comes to large-scale problems such as this." She winked before continuing. "I'm going to have to ask you to take my word on that one though; she doesn't deal with people directly."

The Jedi felt a small amount of unease at the vague response. "You make her sound like a crime boss of some kind." Force knew he had enough experience with those to last him a lifetime.

Kasumi shook her head, hood swaying slightly from the motion. "She's really nice… most of the time. She can be a little intimidating when she gets angry, but normally people deserve it. She isn't a crime boss, so don't worry about that." She shrugged before continuing. "You're going to have to trust me."

Rassen nodded slowly, not entirely convinced. While Kasumi had given him no reason to doubt her, he hadn't the slightest clue as to the motivations of her seeming employer. Circumstances were what they were though, and he had no real choice but to accept that she was right about her friend's skill at dealing with serious problems. He had already learned the hard way that the Mandalorians were a threat he couldn't stop by himself, particularly now it had transpired they had batarian support.

Kasumi had evidently picked up on his scepticism. "Hey, I trusted you earlier, didn't I? That's worked out so far."

The Jedi couldn't help smiling slightly. "Very true, and it would be wrong of me not to extend you the same courtesy. I'll trust your word regarding your friend then, since you have given me no reason to doubt you." The silence returned, though this time it seemed more like a natural break in the conversation rather than because neither one of them knew what to say.

"Since you asked me, it seems rude not to ask you," the Jedi nodded in Kasumi's direction. "Why do you wear a hood? Presumably it is not out of a sense of tradition."

"Nope," Kasumi replied, smirking in a way that told him he wasn't going to get the answer he wanted. "It's comfortable, plus it suits me. Think of it as a fashion statement rather than anything else." Rassen nodded before noticing her glance down at her omni-tool.

"We're coming up on the relay now. I don't trust the VI to get the approach right without help." He nodded to her as she rose from the sofa and headed in the direction of the cockpit. He had already began to return to his thoughts when Kasumi paused and turned back to face him.

"About the start of our conversation, don't give up on trying to find Shaela, Rassen, even though it must have got harder with everything that's happened."

Rassen frowned at her. "What do you mean?"

His new friend gave him a baffled expression, eyes narrowing slightly in suspicion beneath her hood. "Well, searching for people has become a nightmare," she finally said. "After the Reapers, I mean."

Rassen frowned in confusion. "What are the-" A sudden blaring caused the two of them to glance in the direction of the cockpit, from where the interruption had originated. Kasumi had left the room in an instant, Rassen close behind as the two of them sprinted the few metres between them and the origin of the sound.

* * *

"It's a ship," Kasumi explained once she had taken the pilot's seat, fingers flying over the controls in front of her as she began to turn her own vessel around. "It's just come through the relay and is headed right for us."

"Or Horizon." The Jedi replied, the low-ceiling of the cockpit forcing him to remain hunched over slightly from where he stood behind the only chair. "We were heading straight from the planet to the relay, after all."

Kasumi didn't respond as the ship managed to turn around and began moving away from the newcomer's own craft. "Do you think it's them?" She asked, gaze never wavering from what she was doing.

Rassen shook his head before realising that she couldn't see the gesture. "I doubt it. They were long gone by the time you arrived. There is no reason for them to return; the colony is gone." He paused as the Force seemed to tremor slightly. Something big was about to happen. He just wished the Force could be a little more specific about what that something was. "If we've seen them then they probably know we're here. Can you hail them?"

Kasumi nodded before pressing a small button on the orange haptic interface in front of her, a quiet beeping beginning to emit from the console as the button began flashing. "Whoever it is, their ship is tiny," she muttered. "It's probably smaller than this one."

Rassen frowned as the Force seemed to ripple again. Inwardly, he cursed his inability to determine what was happening. Exhaustion and frustration seemed to have had an effect on his abilities. Whatever was happening, this hadn't been the first time he had felt it. Where did he recognise it from? The Jedi closed his eyes as he forced himself to try and remember. It had been a long time ago. Years had passed since the last time he had felt that sensation. He vaguely heard Kasumi announce she had managed to reach the pilot of the other ship, but the sound of a new voice caused his eyes to snap open. He leaned round Kasumi's side, causing her to glance at him in surprise before he spoke, his voice almost a whisper as he addressed the person at the other end of the line.

"Shaela?"

There was a moment of silence during which the universe seemed to almost freeze. Rassen stood there staring at the flashing icon on the interface as Kasumi's head slowly turned in his direction. The mass effect core of the ship seemed to dull to a barely audible whine and even the stars they passed seemed to slow to a crawl. Individual moments tend to pass so quickly that people don't notice them. But every so often, if the circumstances are right, they seem to last for an eternity.

Time seemed to resume its normal pace as the person on the other ship responded, voice as quiet and disbelieving as his own, causing the Jedi's heart to pound like it had when he had fought the Mandalorians on Horizon. It couldn't be, the chances were ludicrous at best, yet so it was. The response was filled with as much raw emotion as his own question had been, and now he understood what the Force had been trying to tell him.

"Rassen?"

* * *

Kasumi watched Rassen carefully as the latter stood in front of the airlock. It had been only mere minutes since the two of them had spoken to the pilot of the small ship that was currently docking with her own, but although he had instantly moved to his current position, the strangely dressed man had been completely still since then. Well, almost completely still. Kasumi prided herself on her observational skills much like any thief would. The difference of course between her and any other thief was simple; she was better.

That was why she could pick up on the minute movements of the man she observed from where she still sat in the pilot's chair.

Rassen was breathing evenly, but each breath was a little longer and deeper than normal; a textbook sign that he was making a conscious effort to keep calm. There was a slight stiffness to his posture, the kind she had grown accustomed to seeing in guards when they were absolutely focused on protecting their charge. The biggest give away however were his eyes.

Beneath his hood, Rassen's eyes moved from one location to the next, gaze never leaving the airlock, but unable to remain focused on one part of it as he thought. As much as it wasn't her concern, Kasumi felt her interest grow. Rassen had seemed relatively unperturbed by her uncloaking near his position when they had met for the first time a few hours ago. Now though, the calm façade he had tried to reassert after discussing the woman currently docking with her ship had cracked, was less perfect than the one he had shown when they had first met.

A series of dull clunking noises reached her position as the docking procedure completed, accompanied by the trademark hissing of gas being released. There was a moment of silence that seemed to last an eternity.

Then the door slid open.

* * *

 _She's barely changed in the slightest._ Rassen stared in amazement at the woman who looked back at him. Shaela still wore the same environment suit she had so many months ago, down to the blue adornments that had torn and dulled in colour during the ordeal on Omega. The only real difference in her appearance was that her hood looked even more ragged than he remembered; the result of it seeing continued use long past when it should have been replaced. Shaela returned his stare, her silver eyes disbelieving as she likewise ran her gaze over his body, looking for any changes. For a moment they continued to examine each other, both unable to accept that the other was real.

"Kasumi," he breathed, eyes never leaving the quarian in front of him, "could you give us a moment?" He barely heard her reply as the door to the cockpit slid shut almost silently, leaving the atmosphere of the cargo hold oppressive as he and Shaela stared at each other

He had spent the few minutes before the two ships had docked thinking desperately about what to say. Should he explain to her what had happened? Ask for forgiveness because he hadn't wanted to leave her but had been made to? Should he ask if she had moved on? How had she found him when he hadn't had the slightest idea of how to find her? All of those questions were important, but as Shaela finished her own examination, silver eyes boring into his own with an intensity that caused him to tremble slightly, his mind went blank. The light built into the quarian's mouthpiece blinked to life before turning off, Shaela clearly having as much trouble with what to say as he did. He couldn't help smiling slightly at the sight.

"I-I missed you," he managed to get out, the words sounding pathetic as they polluted the air. I missed you. Those words could not come close to describing how he had felt without her, without knowing if he would ever see her again. A quiet whimper drew him out of his self-recriminations, the quarian's shoulders beginning to tremble as she looked back at him, those silver eyes behind the light-blue material of her visor seeming to root him to the spot.

"I missed you t-too," Shaela responded, her own voice just as weak as his own as she gently sobbed, her voice as soft as he remembered, that same musical lilt still present despite the distortion caused by her helmet. Rassen felt his smile broaden, and the quarian's eyes seemed to glow even brighter than normal as a result. Time seemed to distort once again and now he was in front of her, Shaela tilting her head up in order to keep their gazes connected.

"I love you," he whispered, his voice now so quiet that a part of him was certain she hadn't heard him.

Shaela's sobs were now easily audible as she responded, her own voice also nearly silent. "I love you too," the quarian smiled through her tears. Rassen felt his vision blur as he pulled her towards him, one arm around her shoulders and the other her waist as he pressed his lips against her mouthpiece. Shaela threw her own arms around his neck, leaning up as far as she could as she kissed him back gently. The kiss began to slowly increase in intensity, Rassen holding the quarian more firmly against himself by moving the arm around her shoulders, in order to place his hand on the back of her neck, the fabric of Shaela's hood pressing against the material of the environment suit beneath it as the quarian moaned quietly, the noise stirring something deep within him. The Jedi growled in response before moving his other arm up from the quarian's waist before bringing it back down, tracing her spine despite the material of her environment suit, firmly massaging the skin there. Shaela moaned again, this time louder, and Rassen felt the quarian pull him forwards, only stopping when her back met the wall next to the airlock.

He didn't know how much time passed as he continued to kiss the woman in his arms, neither of them complaining about the helmet she wore which prevented their lips from actually touching. It might have been only a couple of minutes, it could have been days. All Rassen knew for sure was that eventually the two of them stopped, both gasping for breath, before then sinking to their knees, leaning on one another for support. The Jedi gently cupped the side of the quarian's helmet with one hand, Shaela nuzzling into his touch despite the cool metal that he could feel even through the material of his glove. He leaned forward, slowly resting his forehead on hers as the two of them continued to stare into each other's eyes.

"I love you so much," Shaela whispered, still sobbing as the two of them knelt on the metal flooring.

Rassen smiled as he gently kissed her mouthpiece again. "I love you too, Shaela," he promised. "More than anything."

* * *

Kasumi's thoughts were churning as she sat in her chair. Rassen had given her no reason to doubt him initially, so she had been willing to give him a chance. His armour and cloak were strange, but then she herself could hardly say her own style of dress allowed her to blend into a crowd. No, nothing about his appearance was responsible for her lack of certainty.

 _How the hell does he not know what the Reapers are?_

Every man, woman and child in the galaxy knew the word 'Reaper'. Months after the end of the war, the term was rarely spoken, since when it was there would be terrified muttering about whether they had indeed been stopped in that final battle both on Earth's surface and the space above it, or whether some were still out there, biding their time. There was no way Rassen could not have known about them. Even if had never seen one personally, he would have known the name.

After checking to make sure the door between the cockpit and cargo hold was still sealed, Kasumi returned to her seat and began typing an omni-tool message. She paused halfway through however, unable to stop a small amount of guilt from welling up. Rassen still seemed like a good sort, but she had to do this, she had to know whether she could trust his word. She glanced down at the message once she had finished.

 _Liara,_

 _Everyone on Horizon has been killed bar one survivor called 'Rassen Voratt', who claims he wants to help prevent any other colonies being wiped out. The two of us investigated the colony together and he told me that he thinks a group called the 'Mandalorians' are responsible. The batarians also seem to be involved as well. Rassen seems friendly enough, but everything about him seems… off. His clothing, armour, accent and so on don't quite match anything I've encountered. Liara, he didn't know what the Reapers were._

 _I've attached a picture I managed to take when he wasn't paying attention on Horizon's surface. I need you to see what you can dig up on this guy as soon as possible. I don't know if we can trust him._

 _-Kasumi_

Having checked through the message several times, the thief pressed a button on her omni-tool and sent it. Kasumi then slumped down in her chair slightly. Guilty, she felt guilty at doing a background check on someone she didn't know if she could depend on. A few years ago it would have been second nature to her and she would have had no qualms. Kasumi glanced back in the direction of the door, wondering idly how things were going between Rassen and Shaela. Despite her concern regarding the former, the thought of interrupting the moment no doubt occurring between them disgusted her. Whoever Rassen was, the look in his eyes when the airlock had opened had shaken her to the core.

It was the same look that Shepard had given her the last time they had spoken.

It hadn't been in person, the circumstances of the war hadn't allowed that. No, the final conversation they had, in truth the final conversation many of Shepard's friends had with him, had been via a QED. It had been that day that the Commander had gone missing, the Reapers defeated, and the galaxy saved. When the human and quarian had looked at each other, she had known that no matter what, she couldn't interfere. Kasumi was a born rule breaker, but just this once, she hadn't wanted to get involved.

 _Damn it, Shep. How much did you change me, how much did you change everyone?_


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: This will probably be the last chapter before Christmas, so please consider it an early present. I hope to have another one out before New Year's Day though, so it looks like I'm going to be able to keep my promise regarding more frequent updates.**

 **Reviews:**

 **AnarionRising27: It's great to be back. I also hope that you have a great Christmas yourself. Regarding your PM; we will be seeing more from Kasumi's perspective, so stay tuned for that.**

 **Chapter 9: Naturally**

Shaela slowly removed her forehead from Rassen's, causing the human to look at her curiously for a moment. She smiled to reassure him that nothing was wrong, her grin only widening when he smiled back at her. That was one of the things she loved in particular about him, he could always tell how she felt just from examining her eyes, even though her face was otherwise nearly completely obscured. The quarian sighed contently as she rested her head against the human's shoulder, the side of her helmet meeting the armour there producing a gentle clunking noise.

She felt Rassen gently turn the two of them around so it was now his back that was pressed against the wall. They continued to keep their arms around one another as they enjoyed the moment, neither one willing to interrupt the silence. Well, what passed for silence aboard a ship, with the distant drone of the mass effect core and occasional groan of bulkheads. Still, Shaela thought, she'd take what she could get.

Eventually though, a nagging sensation appeared at the back of the quarian's mind. Shaela frowned in irritation, trying desperately to ignore the feeling and just concentrate on the moment. She felt Rassen tighten his grip on her in response, the Jedi obviously picking up on the fact that something was bothering her. Her frown deepened. She knew full well what the feeling was; curiosity. She wanted, no, _needed_ to know what had occurred, what had happened to him over the last two years, just like she needed to tell him what had happened to her.

She glanced up at Rassen, noticing that the human wasn't looking back at her, instead staring at the wall across from them, jaw slightly clenched. Her frown deepened once again.

"Rassen?" At her voice he turned his attention back to her, one eyebrow raising slightly in curiosity as the corner of his mouth likewise rose. That was one thing about humans and Rassen in particular that she still found intriguing. They could convey so much emotion through just a slight movement of the area above one eye, a facial expression able to completely transform in a moment with virtually no effort. Shaking that particular thought away, Shaela raised a hand to the human's face, running it softly along his jaw, wishing that she could feel the short hairs her gloved hand brushed over.

"Yes, Shaela?" Rassen smiled, his deeper voice seeming to reverberate slightly through the cargo hold as he replied.

"Is something the matter?" She asked nervously, her arms now the ones tightening as she began to worry slightly. "You looked distracted."

She managed to catch the flash of guilt that crossed Rassen's features for a moment, before it vanished so quickly that anyone who didn't know him might have put it down to their imagination. Rassen sighed, glancing away again before turning his gaze back to her; blue eyes conflicted as he seemed to debate whether to tell her. Shaela kept her own gaze unwavering as she waited for his response.

"Not wrong as such, no." Rassen eventually replied. "It's more that I have so many questions about, well… everything. I didn't want to ruin the moment, but it seems as though I have anyway."

"You haven't." Shaela laughed as she leaned up to press her mouthpiece against his jaw. "I have lots of questions too and was just about to ask one, actually."

The slight look of relief that crossed his face caused her to giggle slightly, before Rassen then leaned down to gently kiss the top of her head. She caught the human's smirk as he noticed her freeze, obviously aware that she was blushing despite his inability to see the change in colour of her cheeks.

"I propose that we take turns then," Rassen smiled, not giving her a chance to gather her thoughts. "One of us asks a question, the other one of us answers it and then asks one of their own. That way we can sate both of our curiosities."

Shaela pretended to think as she adjusted her position, stretching her legs out as she did so. The quarian couldn't help but notice however that the atmosphere in the room seemed to shift slightly as she asked her first question. "Okay," she began, desperate to know but somehow still dreading what she might hear. "What happened to you after… after _that_ moment?"

She glanced up to see Rassen's jaw clench tightly. Inwardly, she already regretted asking that question so early on, but she had to know. Had he managed to escape without further harm from the man who had tried to kill them both? Was Zaressh still out there somewhere, biding his time and plotting as he had when he had observed Rassen on Omega? Was Rassen safe now, or was he in the same danger as when they had first met?

"I woke up to find myself on Corellia, not that I knew that initially." At her questioning look, Rassen elaborated. "Corellia is one of the most important worlds in Republic space, but is still back in my galaxy, and I knew what that meant." The human paused for a moment before continuing. "How I found out where I was… it was not my finest moment. I nearly scared the life out of a passer-by by trying to get him to tell me where I had ended up."

"And Zaressh?" Shaela prompted gently.

"I found him only moments away from death. His wounds were fatal." Shaela couldn't help looking away at the reminder of just how much damage she had done to him. A hand that was not her own appeared at the bottom of her helmet, gently guiding her gaze back to where it had been before.

"Do you want me to continue?" Rassen asked gently. "Or would you prefer to talk about something else?"

Shaela was shaking her head even before the human had finished talking. "No," she breathed, "I need to hear this. I know it won't be pleasant, but it's important that I know."

Rassen nodded slowly, clearly not convinced, but trusting her judgement. "I grabbed him, demanded that he take me back. He laughed in response. He knew that he was already dead and more to the point, he knew that I knew. He refused and then he was gone, just like that." Now Rassen was the one to look away. "For a moment," he whispered, "for one short moment, I gave up. It was all… I just… I'm sorry."

Shaela growled, catching him off-guard as she removed herself from the human's grip before taking his face in her hands, the Jedi's hood sliding off his head as a result of the suddenness of the motion. "Don't blame yourself," she demanded. "You… you weren't the only one to panic like that." As Rassen was about to respond, the quarian gently pressed a finger to his mouth. "I'll tell you what happened to me in a second," she promised, "but tell me the rest of what happened to you first." The human nodded slowly in response before raising his hood.

"After a while," Rassen continued, "I remembered what Zaressh had said. He had told me that there were other ways between our galaxies. I knew I could not return by using the same method he had. I could never bring myself to deliberately link my mind to another's the way he did, to use someone else in the way he did. So, I promised myself that I would find another way back." Shaela felt her heart speed up at the way he looked at her, the human's eyes filled with an intensity that caused the quarian's teeth to graze her lower lip. "I promised myself that I would find you again. That is what I have spent every day since trying to do."

"Well you managed it," Shaela whispered breathlessly, "and here you are."

Rassen smiled gently back at her. "I only managed to return several days ago. Besides, you do not give yourself enough credit. It would be more accurate to say that you found me."

"Maybe," the quarian purred. "What exactly-" It was now her turn to be cut off as Rassen pressed a finger over her mouthpiece, Shaela unable to keep herself from going cross-eyed in order to keep it in focus.

"My turn now, remember?" Rassen smiled, though his look of mirth quickly faded. "What happened to you immediately after that moment?"

Shaela found herself unable to respond, swallowing and blinking back tears as she remembered what had occurred. After a moment of trying to gather her thoughts, she spoke. "It took a moment to sink in that you were really gone. I spent two days in that damn valley before realising that you weren't coming back." Rassen flinched, causing her to reassure him. "I know that wasn't your fault," she said quickly, "but I eventually realised I couldn't stay much longer, since the food and water had almost run out."

"What happened next?"

"I somehow managed to get back to the colony. From there, I left Querra and tried searching for anything out of the ordinary, anything that could have been connected to you. I didn't get anywhere though; the last of our credits ran out and I had to get a job so I could keep looking. By the time I had though…" The quarian trailed off as realisation hit. "You don't know!"

Rassen frowned at her change in tone. "Don't know what?" The human ventured.

Shaela found she couldn't keep from trembling with excitement. "A call eventually went out for all quarians to return to the Migrant Fleet. The admirals had decided that it was time to retake Rannoch from the geth. To cut a long story short, somehow we ended up making peace with them and were able to return without having wiped each other out. However, we ended up having to face the Reapers as well."

She couldn't help but notice that Rassen had gone very still at the mention of both conflicts. "You fought in a war?" The Jedi asked, concern and something else the quarian struggled to identify present in his voice.

"No. I helped the injured as best I could. That's still what I'm doing now actually." Shaela looked straight into Rassen's eyes. "I didn't fight anyone, Rassen, though I did make sure to keep practising with my pistol just in case I ever had to."

"I… Good. That is good to hear."

She smiled at him. "My turn again, right? Okay, how did you manage to get back?"

She noticed Rassen stiffen slightly, the human obviously uncomfortable about what he was about to say. "Not long ago," he began, "I learned that members of a group called the Mandalorians had begun disappearing. It was not much to go on, but I was desperate enough to try and find out more. They used… I'm not sure how to describe it, but they used a strange device to transport themselves, even though as far as I am aware, none of them are Force-sensitive. When I touched the same device, a voice in my head asked me if I wanted to be transported and I told it yes. I woke up on Horizon, not that I knew that was the name of the planet at the time. That was a few days ago by my reckoning."

Rassen took a deep breath before continuing. "The Mandalorians… they attacked the colony and killed all of its inhabitants. I tried to stop them, tried to save some of the people, but I failed. They managed to leave the colony despite having no ships of their own. It seems some batarians helped them." The human looked away from her. "I… Force, Shaela. All of them are dead."

* * *

Message to the current Shadow Broker sent, Kasumi stood up and stretched languidly before stifling a yawn. She hadn't had a chance to rest since taking Liara's job, and the consequences were beginning to make themselves known. The thief glanced in the direction of the still closed door that led from the cockpit to the cargo bay. She then looked at her omni-tool before concluding that she had given the two of them enough time. As much as she didn't want to intrude, it would take hours for Liara's reply to come through. Sitting around while her ship remained motionless in space was not really her style, and she would much rather be doing something productive instead of nothing.

The door slid open and she paused in surprise before finding herself unable to keep from smiling. Rassen was currently sitting up against the wall next to the airlock. Shaela was sitting next to him; the quarian's head resting on his shoulder, as the two of them quietly spoke about something. Kasumi felt her smile fade slightly as Rassen glanced in her direction, unable to completely school his features into an expression of calmness. The quarian leaning against him turned to follow his gaze and the thief raised a hand in greeting.

"Hi, you're Shaela, right?"

The quarian removed herself from Rassen and rose to her feet before walking over to her, body language clearly showing she was curious as she examined Kasumi. "Yes, that's me. Who are you?"

"Kasumi. Kasumi Goto if you're being formal." She smiled at Shaela, who seemed to relax slightly, her posture no longer quite so rigid. The thief glanced over at Rassen, who had begun to rise to his feet. "So you found her then," she beamed, despite her suspicions happy for him as Rassen walked over to stand next to the quarian.

"Like I said to her, it was actually Shaela who found me," Rassen smiled briefly, taking one of the quarian's hands in his own before turning back to face the thief. "I met Kasumi earlier today. She was investigating what happened to Horizon, and has very kindly transported me off-world. Which reminds me." Rassen turned to Shaela before returning his gaze to her, causing Kasumi to raise an eyebrow in curiosity. "What do you plan to do now?" He asked.

The thief hummed for a moment. "I've sent a message to my friend, but it will likely take several hours to receive a reply, given that communication is so poor for some reason. I need to hear back from her before deciding what the best course of action is. In the meantime though, I want to get out of this system. Just being near Horizon is making me uncomfortable."

"I know what you mean," Rassen nodded, and Kasumi couldn't shake the feeling that there was more meaning there, though she didn't know what it could be. "There is nothing for anyone here, which means it would be best to leave as soon as possible." The thief watched as he turned to Shaela, the quarian tilting her head at him. "Shaela," Rassen began, "can you find your way back to Rannoch safely?"

"What?" The quarian asked in confusion. "Why would that matter right now? You're going after these 'Mandalorians' and I'm coming with you." At Rassen's look of surprise, she continued. "I came to get you, Rassen, but I know what you're like. You want to try and stop them, which means I'm going too." The quarian paused. "I'm going to have to notify some people though."

"When did I-"

Shaela huffed, and Kasumi couldn't help laughing under her breath as the quarian poked a finger into Rassen's chest. "Oh save it, the moment you mentioned what they did, I knew. Like I said, you want to go after them and there is no way, I repeat, _no way_ I'm letting you go off on your own and put yourself in danger unless I'm there to help. I can't… not when I only just got you back." The quarian nearly tackled the human to the ground as she hugged him, burying her face into his shoulder. Kasumi had to hide her mouth behind her hand as Rassen looked to her for support.

"Well," the thief said, noticing Shaela pull away from Rassen so she could see her, "since your boyfriend has decided to help, why not you?" Rassen turned away from her in irritation in order to face the quarian, who crossed her arms victoriously.

"This will be dangerous," Rassen began, "I do not-"

The entire ship rocked suddenly as something seemed to strike it from the rear, sending the three of them flying. Kasumi grunted as she struggled back to her feet, having fallen onto her back. She looked up to see that Shaela and Rassen were in the same position, both of them looking around in alarm as to the cause of the disturbance. Kasumi frowned as she began to stumble in the direction of the cockpit, only to be almost knocked over again when the ship rocked almost as hard as the first time. What the hell was happening? Space was a vacuum; ships did not just rock for no good reason. The thief felt her blood freeze in her veins as she noticed the readout on the haptic interface. She lunged towards the pilot's chair, barely able to reach it before her ship shook again, this time a groaning noise accompanying it. Kasumi swore violently as Rassen and Shaela reached her, the interface confirming her worst fears.

"Batarian ship, just the one as far as I can tell, but it's between us and the relay. The proximity alarm failed to trigger." _Stupid, cheap VI. No, stupid programmer. What is the galaxy coming to if you can't trust a stolen VI to work properly?_ "It's between us and the relay; it must have come through while we were distracted."

"We can't outrun it," Kasumi began to feel fear setting in as she took the controls and began to try and pull away from the vessel on her scanner. "Even if we didn't have another ship attached, batarian ships are built with speed in mind. It helps to be fast when your whole civilisation is built around owning slaves." She turned to look at the people behind her as the direness of their situation began to sink in. "Any bright ideas?"

Rassen punched a wall in frustration before turning to her, causing her to blink in surprise at the unexpected aggression. "We cannot make it to the relay, this ship has no weapons, and there is no way we could detach Shaela's own ship in time, even assuming that it is faster than their own vessel. On top of that, there could be Mandalorians on-board." He turned to the quarian next to him before looking back at her. "Could we make it to the nearest planet before they shoot us to pieces or capture us?"

Kasumi didn't turn to reply as a sudden whining filled the ship, indicating that the kinetic barriers were weakening. "The nearest planet is called Watchman. It's got an average temperature of minus one-hundred and sixteen degrees Celsius, but it's only a few minutes away." She turned to look at Rassen. "I don't know if we can make it, but it's our best bet." The ship rocked once again, this time even harder than the first, though the three of them were at least expecting it now. She gunned the engine and her ship, with Shaela's still attached, shot towards the inhospitable surface of Watchman, the batarian vessel right behind them.

 _I wish Joker were here. He'd be able to do this._

"Both of you grab onto something!" She shouted, the freezing surface of the planet in her sights as their pursuer began to close the gap between them. "Things are about to get interesting!"

* * *

Her head seemed to be splitting open.

Shaela screamed as the pressure continued to grow, a drill seeming to bore deeper and deeper into her head. Images flashed before her eyes, moments of all kinds; some related to general knowledge and some to things that were private. She weakly tried to push back against the intrusion into her mind, but was no match for the man intent on ripping her knowledge from her, the man intent on learning all he could about her and the other person in the clearing with them.

The agony seemed like it would never end, but then suddenly, it slowly began to fade. Shaela whimpered as she lay on the hard, rocky ground. Although the pain was receding, there was still enough of it to render her barely able to think straight. A few moments passed and then someone was grabbing her, trying to pull her upright. She was about to scream again, but then she released who it was.

Rassen.

The human was pleading with her, trying to get her to run. She barely managed to nod and sagged against him, Rassen supporting her weight with only slight difficulty. Suddenly, he pushed her away, and Shaela could hear the sounds of fighting as she landed on her stomach and tried desperately to get back up.

The world seemed to drift away for a moment as the quarian attempted to rise, muscles trembling as a result of exhaustion. Shaela returned to reality at the sound of several heavy impacts off to her side. Looking over, she saw that Rassen had collapsed and was also trying to stand, though like her, he was unable to do so. She was vaguely aware that someone was talking, speaking in a voice that terrified her. The quarian focused on the speaker as she crawled over to Rassen, trying desperately to make out what they were saying.

Whoever they were, they were talking about her. They were taunting Rassen and telling him what they knew about her. They were the one who had driven a spike into her mind, who has caused the pain that still throbbed viciously in her head. Despite her fear, hate, pure unadulterated hate seemed to suffuse every fibre of her being as she began to remember who the speaker was. Zaressh, his name was Zaressh. He had hurt her, and now he was hurting Rassen.

Time blurred and now she was the one hurting Zaressh. All Shaela knew for sure was that no matter how many times she threw him around like a rag doll, it wasn't enough.

The quarian snarled in rage as she brought the Sith smashing into the wall of rock over and over again. She had grown bored of slamming him into the ground, so she had decided to mix it up a little. A small part of the sick monster she was hurting probably appreciated the change anyway.

Shaela was dimly aware of Rassen moving next to her, of the hum of his lightsaber. There was a sudden hissing noise as he stabbed something, but she paid it no mind. She had to keep hurting the man in front of her. That way he couldn't hurt anyone else.

As Rassen had been destroying whatever he been destroying, Zaressh's mask had come loose, the darkly-coloured object being torn away by the constant slamming of its wearer into the ground and then the wall. Sickly yellow eyes filled with agony seemed to bore into her soul as Shaela continued to pummel the Sith with every ounce of her strength. One particularly hard impact later though, and the eyes drifted shut, Zaressh having been knocked unconscious by the sheer amount of punishment he had taken.

She vaguely heard Rassen talking and turned to him in anger. Why should Zaressh be allowed to live? Hadn't he done enough? Didn't he deserve even more pain than she had been able to inflict on him?

Rassen was still talking, but it was about her now. About how she wasn't beyond saving, about how the rage she felt wasn't her. He was right; a small voice in her head told her. Taking joy in the suffering of others? That wasn't her. She tried to tell him that she didn't know what to do, but the human was talking again, trying to get her to listen. A fog the quarian hadn't even realised was there suddenly seemed to lift from her mind and the world snapped into sharper focus. She was crying now and she felt Rassen hold her tightly as he softly reassured her. Shaela closed her eyes as she hugged him back and told him that she needed him to stay. He promised that he would. It was okay now, it was over. Everything was going to be okay.

"How sickeningly sweet."

She opened her eyes as Rassen vanished and screamed.

* * *

Shaela gasped as she abruptly sat upright. The quarian trembled all over as the events of her dream replayed themselves over and over in her mind. She closed her eyes and fought to keep calm.

 _It's okay, it all happened years ago. It's over._

As she sat there reassuring herself, it slowly dawned on her that something was very wrong. She was no longer on a ship, the metal floor she remembered sitting on having been replaced by rock and ice. Despite her enviro-suit, the quarian shivered as the cold seemed to seep through to her skin like mist, the sensation deeply unpleasant. Querra had been rocky as well, but at least it had not been bitterly cold. In truth, that had always been one thing quarians took for granted, even before they had begun resettling Rannoch. Their enviro-suits were very good at ensuring that the wearer was exposed to a constant temperature, meaning that they could only become uncomfortable in extremely hot or cold areas. If she felt cold, then the planet she was on must be far below freezing.

There was something much worse than the temperature, however. Something that meant a great deal to the quarian. Then the events before her dream caught up with her. Shaela slowly stood up and looked around, before she froze in horror at the sight behind her.

Pieces of debris lay strewn in every direction. Warped metal caught the weak sunlight from above, the bright reflections painful to look at, even through her visor. Somehow, most of the structure of Kasumi's ship was still intact, though pieces of the exterior had been torn off by the craft's impact with the ground. The ship itself was a dozen metres away from her; she must have been thrown clear during the crash. It was a miracle that she was alive and unharmed.

 _Rassen!_

The quarian sprinted towards the downed ship, her attention completely focused on the vessel in front of her. Perhaps too focused.

After all, she didn't see the blurred outline of the figure observing her as she ran.

* * *

The first thing he became aware of was just how cold it was.

Rassen grunted as he opened his eyes, idly noticing how his breath misted in the air. He glanced around groggily, not entirely sure where he was. After a moment though, his brain caught up and he tried to stand, only to find himself unable to do so. Glancing down, the Jedi groaned again at seeing that a slab of metal bulkhead had come loose during the crash, now pinning his legs to the floor. He concentrated for a moment and the offending object rose a few feet off the ground. He barely managed to withdraw his legs and stand up before his strength failed him and the chunk of metal slammed back down with an ear-splitting crash.

"Rassen?"

He glanced in the direction of Shaela's voice just in time to see her enter the ship through the largest gash in its hull, the quarian being especially careful not to catch her suit on the jagged edges of metal. Rassen couldn't help smiling despite the direness of the situation as she spotted him despite the gloom within the ship and began to approach, the quarian shivering from the bitter cold she had been exposed to outside. He winced at the thought. It was freezing within the ship, but it seemed that whatever had regulated the temperature while they were in space still just about worked, despite the damage the vessel had taken.

He felt his expression shift into one of concern. "Are you all right?" He asked, meeting her halfway and checking for any signs of injury or damage to her suit. "Was your suit damaged in the crash? You were outside, are you hurt?"

He felt himself calm slightly as Shaela shook her head. The quarian stepped closer, beginning to examine him in return. "No," Shaela reassured. "No damage of any kind, though I do have a splitting headache."

"Likewise. Truth be told, we are both lucky to be alive."

She nodded. "That's true."

Rassen pulled away from her gently. "Whoever shot us down might still be nearby," he explained. "We need to find Kasumi and decide what to do next." Shaela nodded in response to his words, before she suddenly went very still, barely breathing as her eyes widened in fear. A moment later, Rassen saw why.

A figure, barely noticeable save for a slight outline, stood behind the quarian. For a moment, he thought it was Kasumi, but it couldn't be. Whoever it was stood much taller than the missing woman and was also far bulkier. The outline flickered and their appearance transformed as their stealth technology deactivated, revealing a man covered in grey armour. Rassen's world went red as he saw that the figure held a blaster pistol against the back of Shaela's neck, the quarian remaining motionless in fear and shock. The Mandalorian, a commando, he realised, stomach sinking, looked at him, and Rassen could practically see the man's smile, despite the helmet he wore. The smile no doubt broadened as several other figures entered the ship through the gap in the hull before also uncloaking, so that another five grey-armoured Mandalorians stood alongside their leader. Knowing he held all the cards, the one threatening Shaela spoke.

"Jedi, impressive job evading us on Horizon. Your luck has run out now, however. Mandalore sends her regards."


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Well I did say I would update one more time just before the end of the year, didn't I? I hope you all had a great Christmas, and if you don't celebrate Christmas then I hope you had a great day regardless.**

 **This is the longest chapter of** _ **Spectre**_ **so far (which it needed to be) so I'm eager as always to know what people think.**

 **Reviews:**

 **AnarionRising27: Thank you once again. As I mentioned, here is the last chapter of the year.**

 **seabo76 (Chapter 6): I hope you're enjoying this fic so far. As to what happens next... the only way to know is to keep reading :)**

 **seabo76: Great to hear. I'm glad that I'm getting Kasumi right; it's proving challenging to balance her fun-loving personality with seriousness (given the context of the story).**

 **Thanks once again.**

 **JustWriteAnon: I'm really enjoying writing Kasumi, so I'm very glad to hear that I'm doing a good job overall. Rassen and Shaela are fun to write too, so that's always a plus. The next few chapters will certainly be interesting (I hope).**

 **Thanks for reviewing as always!**

 **Chapter 10: Truth**

"Hands up," the lead Mandalorian ordered, inclining his head in Shaela's direction, the threat obvious. Rassen nodded slowly before raising his hands, desperately trying to think of a way to get the two of them out of their current situation. The leader then nodded towards him, gaze never wavering. "All of you keep your sights on the Jedi, I've got this one." At his words, the other five Mandalorians tightened their grip on their weapons, which were currently aimed at Rassen. For a moment nobody spoke. The loudest sound in the room was Shaela's frightened breathing as she stood rooted to the spot, unable to move.

After a moment, Rassen decided to break the silence. "What do you want?" He asked, not daring to try and go for his lightsaber while Shaela's life was in danger.

"We noticed you on Horizon, Jedi," the leader explained, voice gravelly as a result of the vocabulator built into his helmet. "More importantly, Mandalore noticed you. She wants to know how many of you there are."

Rassen let his gaze wander to Shaela, whose eyes were wide behind her visor, though she was just about able to keep herself from panicking. He smiled slightly to reassure her before returning his gaze to the man who still held a blaster pistol against the back of her neck. "Let her go and I will sate Mandalore's curiosity." He replied evenly.

The leader's response was laced with venom. "Do not try to negotiate, Jedi," he spat. "You will answer the questions I ask you quickly and honestly. If you do not…" He trailed off; making it abundantly clear what would happen if he were refused.

"And what happens if I do answer your questions?" Rassen challenged, looking for anything useful out of the corner of his eye. "What guarantee do I have that you will let her go," he indicated Shaela with a nod, "that you will let either of us go?"

The smile had no doubt returned to the Mandalorian's face as he replied. "Jedi are normally full of spiel about how there is good in everyone and how important redemption is." At his words, a quiet rumble of laughter came from the other commandos. "You'll just have to trust me, Jedi."

"Rassen." Shaela's voice caused him to turn his attention back to her. The quarian gave him a determined look despite just how much danger her life was in. "Don't tell them anything."

"Enough." The leader roughly grabbed one of her shoulders before ramming his blaster muzzle-first into the back of her neck, Shaela crying out as she was forced to bend forwards. "First question," he began, "how many others are there?"

Rassen looked back at the Mandalorian, unable to prevent part of his rage from seeping through. "If you mean Jedi, then I am afraid that I am the only one. No one else made the trip."

"No one else affiliated with the Republic knows about this galaxy? Knows how we got here?"

Rassen ground his teeth together, unwilling to lie while Shaela's life hung in the balance. "No," he replied, anger building as the blaster continued to remain pressed firmly against the quarian's neck.

"Well that makes things nice and easy, doesn't it?" The leader turned to one of his subordinates, the rest keeping their blasters aimed directly at him. "Only him then. Actually, that saves needing to ask any more questions." He turned back to the Jedi. "As I said, Mandalore wanted to know if anyone else is coming. Given your anger at how I'm threatening this one," he nodded down towards Shaela, "you've realised that I'm serious about killing her. You're telling the truth."

"So, now what?" Still looking for anything he could use, Rassen noticed that to his left and slightly behind him, a section of the ship's wall had been pushed inwards by the craft's impact with the ground. It could possibly be used as makeshift cover, given that it jutted out several feet into the room. Inwardly he scowled. There was no way he could currently get himself and Shaela behind it, not when he was being watched so closely and the latter had a blaster pressed against her.

"I believe you know the answer to that, Jedi. Mandalore wanted you taken captive, but my men are loyal. They'll support me when I say you were impossible to take alive." Rassen was about to grab his lightsaber, but the threat that followed stopped him short.

"If you try to resist, I'll kill the girl. On the other hand, do nothing and I'll let her go when you've been disposed of."

"Rassen, don't!" Shaela began struggling, forcing the man holding her hostage to press the blaster pistol even harder into the back of her neck. The quarian stopped moving and looked at him pleadingly, silver eyes now wide with fear for him rather than herself. There was another moment of silence as the world seemed to slow to a crawl, before the leader began to issue a command.

Rassen almost didn't notice it. As it was, there was a flicker just at the edge of his perceptions, a subtle notification from the Force that, even with his years of training, he nearly missed. As a petite, female figure appeared behind one of the Mandalorians at the edge of the group, Rassen sprinted towards the cover he had noticed, simultaneously raising an arm in Shaela's direction. The quarian yelped as she was pulled through the air and into his arms. At the same time, there was a bizarre sound, a cross between a punch and an electronic hum as the Mandalorian in front of Kasumi collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. Rassen threw himself towards the wall, Shaela in his arms, and rolled, taking the quarian and himself fully away from the blasters of the Mandalorians and behind the jutting piece of cover. As three of the remaining five attackers turned to keep tracking him, the Jedi sprang to his feet, lightsaber hissing to life as he stepped from safety in order to help Kasumi.

He saw her vanish from sight as the other two Mandalorians fired in her direction, their blasters scoring hits against the metal wall of the ship opposite where they stood. Rassen raised his lightsaber into the path of a blaster bolt fired by the first of the three Mandalorians to target him, the lone projectile easily being deflected back in the direction of its owner. He rolled out of the way of the blast of scarlet energy, causing Rassen to raise a hand in his direction. The Mandalorian was picked up as though by an invisible hand and flung backwards, slamming into the wall behind him with a deafening crashing noise as heavy armour met unyielding surface. The sound of a mass accelerator weapon roared from somewhere to his side, blood spurting from the downed Mandalorian as several shots struck home without hitting the man's armour. Shaela gave him a quick nod as he turned to face her.

The other two Mandalorians opened fire, concentrating on him rather than the quarian. The final two, which Rassen realised included the leader, were more concerned with locating their mystery attacker. The latter pair did not have to wait long, Kasumi uncloaking behind one of them the moment their back was turned, the petite woman bringing her fist crashing into the man's unarmoured neck with the same noise he had heard earlier. Rassen deflected the first few blaster bolts of his own attackers easily and then rolled to the side, their next attacks missing him as a result, the scarlet bolts soaring above him as he dodged them. He rose to one knee and hurled his lightsaber at the two Mandalorians, the azure blade spinning gracefully towards the two men horizontally. Neither was able to evade in time as they were both sliced in half effortlessly by the weapon, which Rassen called swiftly back to his hand.

The final commando, the leader he realised, glanced around as he realised all of his soldiers lay dead. Kasumi uncloaked several metres away from him as Rassen walked over, lightsaber still at the ready as the Mandalorian looked between the two of them, clearly unsure as to who was the greater threat. As Rassen drew closer though, he fired at the Jedi, who easily deflected the shot into the man's leg. He fell with a grunt of pain, his armour saving him from having the limb blasted off, but not providing enough protection to prevent serious damage.

Rassen pulled the blaster pistol from his attacker's hand using the Force with barely any conscious thought, the weapon that had threatened Shaela landing somewhere behind him as the quarian herself made her way over to join them, her own gun never wavering. He stood over the Mandalorian for a moment, trying to control his anger as the man stared back at him defiantly.

"Get on with it then, Jedi. I don't know anything useful."

 _Go on, kill him. You know he deserves it._

Rassen stared down at his captive for a moment, silently gauging how truthful the statement was. He was vaguely aware of Kasumi watching him cautiously, her eyes moving between the Mandalorian, him, and the lightsaber he still held ignited in one hand. He deactivated the weapon, the usual hissing noise filling the room as the blade retracted.

"I disagree," he finally replied, crouching down to be at the same level as the Mandalorian, though he made sure to keep alert for any signs of sudden movement. "I think you're going to tell me what I want to know because if you do then I won't have to kill you."

The Mandalorian laughed at the threat. "Do you seriously think I'd believe that?" He taunted. "You Jedi don't have it in you to kill those who can't defend themselves."

"But you do, obviously. Like the colonists on Horizon, yes? Not very honourable was it?"

"That was necessary." Despite the dismissive response, Rassen knew he had struck a nerve. Inwardly, the Jedi smirked at the anger the Mandalorian had been unable to entirely supress.

"Why?"

"It was… part of the agreement."

"With the batarians?"

"Yes."

"What was this agreement?"

"For the most part they provide us transport and we crush their enemies. I don't understand why we can't just kill them and take their ships, but Mandalore has ordered us to cooperate."

Rassen frowned at the explanation. "But why come in the first place? What could have possibly drawn you here?"

"Above my pay-grade, Jedi," the Mandalorian replied. "You want to know? Take it up with Mandalore herself. I'm sure she'll enlighten you, though you'll need to have a level of affection towards Force-suppression collars and prison cells."

"You will understand if I decline Mandalore's hospitality."

"Fine by me, I didn't want to take you alive before; I certainly don't want to take you alive now." The leader's former smugness returned as he glared at the Jedi across from him.

Rassen frowned again, anger increasing at the Mandalorian's taunts. "If you want me dead, then why bother telling me anything then?"

The smugness now reached new heights. "Because this has a rather long delay." The Mandalorian opened the hand that had been held to his wound. Rassen's eyes widened as he saw a red light blinking on the spherical object in the man's palm. He threw the Mandalorian backwards with the Force, but the last thing he was aware of was something slamming into his side before the world went dark.

* * *

It all seemed to happen in the blink of an eye.

One moment Rassen was crouching opposite the leader of the men who had attacked them, the Jedi carefully watching for any sign of movement. The next, the Mandalorian was sailing through the air as Kasumi tackled Rassen out of the way, the human woman moving with a speed that left Shaela speechless, before she had then attempted to get out of the way herself. The grenade had almost completely obliterated the body of its owner, while both Rassen and Kasumi were lying unmoving just a few metres away from one another. Shaela sprinted over to the former, omni-tool running up and down his body as she scanned him.

"Rassen? She asked desperately. "Rassen, can you hear me?" A groan answered her as the human stirred slightly. She examined the scan results, gasping as she realised the extent of the grenade's effects. Visually his wounds were only minor, though his armour was more scuffed and battered than before. However, if her omni-tool was correct, he appeared to have a concussion. Remembering someone else had been caught by the blast; she quickly turned her attention to Kasumi, but froze in horror before she could initiate the scan.

A pool of blood had gathered around the mysterious woman, the colour almost black due to the dim overhead lighting. Kasumi was unconscious at best. At worst… Shaela didn't even want to think about it. The quarian turned back to Rassen and took the human's face in her hands, desperately trying to get his attention.

"Rassen?" She begged. "Kasumi is seriously hurt, she needs our help." The Jedi grunted in acknowledgement as he stirred again. He tried to get up, only to collapse before he could even get onto his hands and knees. She slung one of his arms over her shoulders as she gently tried to help him over to Kasumi. "Can you use the Force?" She asked desperately. "She needs Force healing and I don't know how to do it." Rassen nodded tiredly before again trying to get up, only to stop as he pressed his forehead against the floor, sweat collecting on his brow. "Room's spinning," he muttered weakly. "I-I can't." At seeing her activate her omni-tool, the Jedi waved a hand weakly in her direction. "Worry about me later," he managed to get out. "Deal with… with her first. She needs help more urgently."

Even though she agreed with him, a part of Shaela felt sick as she nodded and gently released the arm she still held. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Shaela left Rassen and quickly made her way back to Kasumi before kneeling next to her. The pool of blood instantly soaked the material of her enviro-suit at the knees. She ignored it.

 _I'm back in the hospital. She's just another patient._

"Okay," Shaela breathed. "First identify the injury." She activated the same program she had used on Rassen, the expanding pool of blood reflecting the bright orange light of her omni-tool as she checked Kasumi's vital signs. "Serious loss of blood from a wound on the lower back, not fatal yet, but quickly growing worse. No shrapnel in the wound currently slowing the blood loss. I need to stem it as fast as possible." She quickly patted herself down, searching desperately for anything useful. Her hands paused as she reached her hood, the thick material still durable despite its years of use.

 _I was going to have to replace it eventually._

Shaela unclasped the item before removing it from her head and examining it. The once vibrant blue had long since faded, some areas even appearing closer to white than the original colour. She nodded to herself upon noticing that while there were a few holes, they were near the edges of the piece of clothing, not the centre.

The quarian turned back to Kasumi before gently rolling her over. Having done so, Shaela instantly noticed the injury despite the poor lighting; the bodysuit at Kasumi's lower back being soaked with blood. Thinking quickly, she readied every treatment of medi-gel she had. Taking another deep breath, she applied the substance all over the piece of fabric in her hands, taking care to lather it particularly thickly in the centre. She then pressed it firmly against Kasumi's wound and held it in place with both hands.

A few seconds passed. Shaela continued to hold her now ruined hood in place as blood soaked it alongside the medi-gel. Nothing seemed to be happening! Kasumi's blood continued to absorb into the thick material of her hood until it reached her gloves. Although waterproof, Shaela could feel the heat of the other woman's blood as it covered her fingers and palms. Internally, she started pleading with the ancestors to spare the human's life. She barely knew Kasumi, but the other woman had put her own life in danger for two of them. She would be damned if she let her die after doing that.

Another few seconds passed, and the flow of blood began to finally slow, the medi-gel and pressure on the wound causing it to gradually stop. Shaela let out a quiet sigh of exhausted relief as the flow finally ceased entirely, the pool that soaked her knees ceasing its growth. Infection would normally be the next issue she would have to deal with, but with the amount of medi-gel she had applied, all of the pathogens in the wound would have already been neutralised.

"Is she going to be all right?"

She looked over at Rassen, who was again trying to get up. She motioned for him to stop. "Yes," she replied. "She's lost a lot of blood, but she should be fine."

He smiled back at her, even though his eyes looked slightly unfocused. "Never doubted you, Shaela, not for a single moment."

Shaela double-checked that Kasumi was stable and the bleeding had definitely stopped before gently removing her hands from her now thoroughly drenched hood. She then took the other woman's wrist and accessed her omni-tool, to her relief finding that Kasumi had a small amount of medi-gel on her person. Transferring it over to her own device, she made her way over to Rassen before kneeling down next to him. "Can you sit up if I help you?" She asked worriedly.

"Hopefully."

After a moment of struggling, with her help Rassen was able to sit up. Using the light of her omni-tool to help her see, Shaela quickly noticed that the hair on the back of the human's head was matted with blood. She applied the medi-gel without delay, unable to keep from sighing in relief as Rassen's own injury proved much quicker to heal than Kasumi's.

Rassen evidently picked up on her relief, the human shuffling backwards so he sat next to her before gently embracing her. "Thank you," he whispered next to her ear.

She smiled as she replied. "You're welcome, Rassen."

A sudden beeping caused the two of them to glance in the direction of one of the Mandalorians. Rassen quickly stood up before making his way towards the body; still moving slightly unsteadily as he did so. Shaela frowned as he picked up what appeared to be a small communicator before pressing a button on the side. The voice of someone speaking a rough and unfamiliar language filled the room. Her frown deepened before she realised what was happening. The person at the other end was clearly speaking in a different language to the one Rassen and the Mandalorian leader had conversed in. It must be one from their galaxy, she realised, as her omni-tool was unable to translate it.

Rassen closed his eyes before slowly opening them. "Their ship," he said, indicating the Mandalorians, "is about to leave since they have not reported in." He glanced around before returning his attention to her. "I cannot see this one going anywhere soon, so we need to take theirs. Fortunately, they seem to have landed close to us, as far as I can sense." He turned to face her. "Look after Kasumi, I will be back shortly."

"Rassen," Shaela sprinted over to him, "you can't go out there, I only survived it because I have my suit, your armour isn't sealed. The temperature is far too low for anyone without proper protection!"

He nodded. "For more than a few seconds, yes. I do not, however, plan to be out there for any longer than that."

Shaela looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Rassen smiled slightly as he retrieved his lightsaber from where it had landed after the grenade exploded. "I never did tell you just how fast I can run, did I?"

* * *

The loading ramp groaned heavily before swiftly being pulled open. Rassen lowered his hand and sprinted inside the batarian ship, every part of his body seeming to scream in protest at the bitter cold it had been subjected to. Mere seconds had passed since leaving Shaela, but being exposed to such a low temperature for even that long had taken its toll. His lips and ears were as numb as though he had spent an entire winter's day outside, and shivers wracked his body. As a pair of batarians and one Mandalorian levelled their weapons at him though, the Jedi shook away his concerns and ignited his lightsaber.

He could complain about the temperature of this world once they had left it far behind.

* * *

The first thing that came to her mind was that she had never felt so cold.

Kasumi groaned as consciousness slowly returned to her, the thief blearily opening her eyes. Instantly noticing that her surroundings were unfamiliar, she tried to get up, only to groan even louder as the world seemed to spin like a top. She was dimly aware of a familiar figure fussing over her. After a moment she recognised the voice.

"Stay still," Shaela commanded. "You've lost a lot of blood. It's going to take your body a while to recover its strength, particularly since we had to take you outside to get you here. It's just lucky that Rassen is as fast as he said."

"Where is here?" She asked, the world continuing to spin as she did her best to lay still. She looked around sluggishly, idly noticing that Shaela seemed to be missing the hood she had been wearing earlier. All female quarians seemed to wear the same kind of hood as Shaela, now that she thought about it. Dismissing that particular observation, Kasumi noticed that she appeared to be on a bed of some sort, though it felt surprisingly uncomfortable. Several blankets lay on top of her, all of them smelling of cheap cleaning solution. A pair of simple looking chairs sat next to the bed, Shaela currently occupying one of them.

 _We're definitely not anywhere on Ilium, that's for sure._

"We're on the ship that shot us down," the quarian explained. "We were attacked by a small number of Mandalorians, and you were hurt. Rassen dealt with the batarians and one soldier the Mandalorians left behind, and then we moved you here. We just need to perform pre-flight checks and then we can leave. That's what he's doing now, actually."

"Why aren't you with him?"

Shaela laughed lightly in response. "I'm looking after you," she replied. "You're still hurt, but I managed to stop the bleeding, though it was very serious at first. Unfortunately for you, that makes you my patient for the moment. Rassen can probably heal you though, once he gets his strength back that is."

Kasumi looked at her in surprise. "Thank you," she said honestly. Shaela nodded back happily and the two of them lapsed into a comfortable silence. After a moment though, part of the conversation began to nag at her and she couldn't resist probing for information. "Rassen doesn't seem much like a doctor." She stared at the quarian, who began to fidget slightly in discomfort. "Who is he?" She asked finally.

"I don't know what you mean."

"Don't you?"

"No."

"You're a terrible liar."

Shaela looked away before turning back to her. Kasumi felt a small amount of guilt at the conflict in the other woman's eyes, but held firm. After seeming to debate with herself mentally, the quarian finally spoke.

"It's up to him about what he tells you," the other woman said. "I don't know how much he's told you already, but it would be better to let him explain."

"Explain what?"

Kasumi jumped slightly as Rassen entered the conversation, before scowling slightly. That was unfair; no one ever caught her by surprise like that.

 _If I wasn't currently in what feels suspiciously like a hospital bed in the middle of nowhere and had more than half my usual amount of blood, then I'd have heard him coming a mile off._

"Kasumi, she… she wants to know who you are." Kasumi watched as Shaela stood up and placed a hand on Rassen's arm. "She saved us," the quarian reminded him, "doesn't she deserve to know?" Kasumi held Rassen's gaze as he turned to her, a dozen emotions seeming to pass through his eyes in less than a second. He finally nodded before sitting down in the second chair, Shaela returning to the one she had just vacated a moment earlier.

"I do not know if you will believe me," Rassen began. "But everything I am about to tell you is true. Shaela is right; you deserve the truth after everything you have done so far." He took a deep breath as she continued to watch him for any sign that he was lying. He laced his fingers together and Kasumi braced herself for an earth-shattering revelation. As it was, she was not disappointed.

"I come from another galaxy."

* * *

Rassen watched Kasumi cautiously as the still-hooded woman seemed to slowly process his words, turning them over in her mind. He glanced over at Shaela, who took one of his hands and gently squeezed it. He smiled at her in thanks before retuning his attention to the woman in the bed, who rolled one hand for him to keep talking. He blinked in surprise before Kasumi rolled her eyes.

"Well? Keep going."

He turned to look back at Shaela incredulously, the quarian looking just as surprised as he felt. He stared at Kasumi in surprise. "You believe me?"

"I'm willing to hear you out." She gestured at their surroundings with surprising energy, considering she looked substantially paler than normal. "I don't have anything else to do."

He couldn't help from smirking at her response despite his shock at her nonchalant reaction. "Very true."

Hours passed as he explained who he was and where he had come from. As he had with Shaela when they first met, he paid special attention to things such as the Force, which he knew Kasumi had no idea about. Once he reached his arrival in this galaxy several years prior, Shaela began to join in, the quarian adding details from her own perspective or mentioning things he would have otherwise forgotten. The two of them left very little out, explaining about Zaressh, Omega and Aria, and how they had eventually left the station in pursuit of the Sith. Through it all Kasumi remained silent, features calm as she listened attentively. Once they arrived at the aftermath of the events on Querra though, he gave only a broad outline of what had occurred during the next two years. Out of the corner of one eye, Rassen noticed Shaela give him a concerned look, the quarian obviously noticing the lack of detail compared with other parts of the account. Finally reaching the point where he and Kasumi had first met, the Jedi finally stopped talking, voice hoarse.

A small amount of colour had returned to Kasumi's face by that time as another few minutes passed while she absorbed everything she had been told.

"All right, fine. I believe you." He opened his mouth to respond, but the bed-ridden woman beat him to the punch. "That story is so ridiculous, so detailed, that it has to be true. Well, at least mostly."

Looking back at that moment, Rassen would always be slightly embarrassed at the strange choking noise he made as he stared at her in disbelief. "You… I… what?" He finally managed.

The ghost of a smile appeared on Kasumi's face. "Look," she began, "I've seen enough completely bizarre and unbelievable things to know that anything is possible. There is no way you made all of that up on the fly, particularly with how well Shaela was able to expand on different parts. Anyway, the kind of weapons those guys back there had… and you had a sword. To be honest, another galaxy isn't as strange as some of the explanations I could think up."

"So you believe me?"

"Yep." He couldn't help smiling in relief as he noticed how Kasumi rolled her eyes at his reaction. "I believe you, big guy." She paused in thought. "Although, some more proof would be nice."

"Like what?"

"If you can heal people like Shaela said you can, could you heal me?" Seeing no reason not to oblige, considering he seemed to have recovered almost entirely from his own injuries, Rassen glanced over at Shaela, who nodded back encouragingly. The Jedi then stretched out an open hand in Kasumi's direction, closing his eyes as he reached out to the Force.

"Don't take too long to do this, Shaela might get jealous."

He refused to open his eyes, though he did allow himself to smirk as Shaela made an indignant sound in response to the joke. "The sensation is a little disconcerting," he warned, "but not unpleasant. Your wound is extensive, even though so much medi-gel was applied to it. This may take a while."

* * *

The door began to slide open before him, and he nearly tapped a foot impatiently, barely able to contain his excitement. Finally, after all of Mandalore's assurances and promises, it was done. As much as he hated to admit it, no one else could have managed it. It was beyond the best of the Hegemony's scientists, beyond even the salarians, despite the speed the damn amphibians could think at. He winced at the bright light of the room as he entered it, his four eyes contracting as he began to quickly march to his target. The various batarian personnel and Mandalorians watched him as he passed, but he paid them no mind.

The moment he had received word that the project was at last completed, he had immediately begun making his way to the lab. He had so far managed to keep his expression calm and collected despite the immense glee he felt, though that had been no easy task. The horned alien turned to face him as he approached, giving him a look of detached disinterest. Even the blatant disrespect failed to ruin his good mood. That was unusual; disrespect was something he normally never tolerated. Then again, this was far from a normal day.

At the alien's gesture, he nodded crisply and walked over to the result of the former's labours. As he surveyed the one personal thing he had insisted on in his deal with Mandalore, he smirked.

 _Finally._

* * *

Rassen frowned as he examined the small screen in his hands, the chair he was sitting on creaking in protest as he adjusted his position, the cockpit silent save for his movements. An hour had passed since he had healed Kasumi, but they had not yet taken off. The reason why was currently in his hands, the words on the datapad he had found in this room proving more difficult to decipher than he had expected. It would have made more sense to finish the pre-flight checks and then try to work out what was contained on the device while they headed somewhere they could get help. Something was nagging at him though, some instinct that told him that there was still something they didn't know, something so important that he needed to find it out as quickly as possible. He was most of the way through the datapad now, but still felt that he was missing some great revelation.

Shaela could have dealt with the checks while he was examining the datapad, but she was currently going through the wreck of her ship. The quarian had refused to answer any questions related to why she wanted to do so alone, and Rassen hadn't pried. He knew her well enough to tell that the destruction of her own vessel had seriously upset her, but no more than that. As a result, they had agreed to accomplish their separate tasks before leaving Watchman.

"I can't understand a word of whatever that is."

He didn't jump as he had when Kasumi had caught him off-guard before. He must have already started to get used to her ability to sneak up on people silently. "That will be because it is in Mando'a," he replied, "which no one in this galaxy speaks." He glanced over his shoulder at her from where he was sitting. "You should still be resting," he muttered. "Your wound may be healed, but there is little I can do about the blood loss."

Kasumi shrugged off his warning. "You mean that no one in this galaxy speaks it except them… and you, presumably."

"Yes, though I am not as familiar with the language as I would like to be." Rassen frowned again as the small blue lettering on the screen continued to irritate him. "Even with my omni-tool helping, I still have not finished working out everything on it. Apparently the translation function seems to struggle with Mando'a more than Galactic Basic."

"Hmm." Kasumi leaned over his shoulder, the petite woman's features illuminated slightly by the glow of the screen. "Anything useful though?"

"As far as I can tell, it appears to contain the orders given to the leader of the Mandalorians who fought us. It seems as though he left it on board this ship after memorising them. The logical thing to do would have been to then destroy this device, though it seems he did not expect to lose and so did not bother." Rassen paused to let out a yawn before continuing. "There is a mention of some kind of 'special arrangement,' something about a prisoner."

"A prisoner?"

"Yes. Someone they have had for months and the batarians want very badly to suffer by the sound of things. They seem to intend to move him to a secure facility." Rassen looked up at her, mind too exhausted to notice how Kasumi had gone very still. "Someone called 'Shepard,' apparently."

* * *

Every single part of his body hurt. Shepard blinked furiously, desperately trying to see through the viscous blue liquid that encased him. His breaths came out as loud hissing noises as a result of the breathing apparatus attached to his face. He had woken up only moments ago, and nearly panicked when he realised he was floating in some kind of tank in the middle of a brightly lit room.

He squinted as he saw several dark shapes moving through the liquid. _People_ , he realised with a start. But were they friend or foe? Instincts honed by years of training and even more of experience began to kick in as he tried to work out how many there were and how to best dispatch them. After a moment though, all of the shapes save one vanished, the one which remained growing larger as the figure approached the tank. There was suddenly a second hissing noise alongside his breathing, before he realised that the liquid in the tank was draining through a hole at the bottom. As soon as it had finished, the breathing apparatus detached itself and the front of the tank swung open, causing him to stumble forwards before collapsing, his breathing desperate and ragged.

A pair of boots appeared squarely in the middle of his vision. Shepard slowly looked up, eyes moving over the figure's legs, chest, and finally reaching their face. Despite all of his training, all of his victories, he shivered in a way that had nothing to do with the cold. The man standing above him savoured the moment before speaking, voice smug as he barred the needle-like teeth all batarians possessed.

"Hello, Shepard," grinned Ka'hairal Balak, "it's been too long."


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: The first chapter of 2019 is here. I hope you all have a great year!**

 **Reviews:**

 **AnarionRising27: Thanks, I will! There is plenty more to come, so make sure you stick around. Your enthusiasm is infectious and helps to keep me going, I hope to see more reviews from you this year!**

 **seabo76: Glad to hear it. I had that particular reveal in mind even before I had begun writing this story, so it felt great to finally let the cat out of the bag.**

 **JustWriteAnon: Good to hear. I felt that last chapter needed to be slightly longer than normal because so much happens. I'm rather proud of that twist; I've had it in mind since before I began writing this story, so I'm glad it caught people by surprise.**

 **Chapter 11: Response**

"Shepard." The whisper was so quiet that Rassen almost missed it, but as he stared in surprise at the range of emotions that made their way across Kasumi's face, he knew for certain what she had said.

"Kasumi," he ventured cautiously, not wanting to pressure her given her current condition but needing to know more, "do you know who that is?"

She gave no sign she had heard him, staring straight at the datapad he still held as though he had just told her it was the most important object in the universe. He thought she might never answer until she suddenly shook her head slightly to clear it, before slowly leaning against one of the walls of the cockpit for support and staring at the ground in front of her. "Yes," she finally replied, still whispering, "I know him." Her head suddenly snapped up, eyes boring into his own. "Where is he?"

Rassen turned back to the datapad, frowning as he failed to locate anything else of any importance. "I do not know," he answered, "there are no coordinates or place names as far as I can tell. The Mandalorians were careful enough to omit those."

Kasumi suddenly lurched forwards, catching him off-guard as she began to type commands, a screen flaring to life in front of her as her fingers moving rapidly over the orange haptic surface. "What are you doing?" He asked, concern rising for the suddenly panicked woman.

"I'm checking where this ship has last been," Kasumi replied, face slightly lit by the orange of the interface in front of her. "I need to find him and get him out as fast as possible." She glanced at him for a split-second before returning her attention to the screen. "I'm going to need your help."

"I'm sorry?"

Kasumi looked back at him, features determined. "I'm going to need your help," she repeated. "If the batarians have him then they're going to have some heavy security. Besides, you know more about the Mandalorians than I do."

"Kasumi," Rassen gently said, reaching out to grip onto one of her arms, "there are three of us and you are still recovering. You saved Shaela's life and mine too. If someone close to you is in danger, I want to help you in return, but would it not be better to get other assistance as well? Shepard sounds like a human name… could we not notify the Systems Alliance about what we have found?"

Kasumi snapped round to face him, and Rassen couldn't help but notice that the petite woman's jaw was set. "No," she stated firmly, "everyone is stretched thin at the moment. Any help would take days, maybe longer with the current communication issues. Shepard has more friends than anyone else I know, but anything could happen to him during the time we'd waste waiting for help." She shook her head before returning her gaze to him. "The batarians want him to suffer," she muttered. "They could do anything to him… could have already done anything to him. The only thing to do is get him away from them right now."

Despite his best efforts to remain calm, Rassen felt a small amount of irritation well up at Kasumi's uncompromising stance. "I agree that if the batarians and Mandalorians have him, he needs to be rescued," he said gently, "but like I said; there are three of us. Kasumi, there could be hundreds of Mandalorians and Force knows how many batarians." He felt her eyes on him as he looked away from her to stare out of the cockpit at the barren ice and rock of the planet outside. "I told you that I want to stop the Mandalorians. In truth, I want to stop the batarians too since they are working together—"

"So help me."

Rassen felt his irritation grow as the conversation began to run in circles. "Who is he?" He demanded. "What makes Shepard so important? You almost died, why would you try to throw your own life away with so little thought after getting that badly hurt?"

"Because he saved everyone."

Both of them turned round as a third voice joined the conversation. Shaela entered the cockpit, a simple brown travelling case under one arm as she looked between them. Rassen glanced at the case in curiosity as the quarian turned to Kasumi. "He doesn't know," she explained to the still recovering woman. She turned to face him now, eyes glowing through the near-opaque blue visor with a greater intensity than normal. "You've told us what happened to you, Rassen, but I haven't told you everything that happened here during the last few years."

The atmosphere in the room had shifted. It now seemed heavy and oppressive to Rassen as he held the quarian's gaze. Instinct told him he would not like what he was about to hear. "You mentioned that there were wars while I was gone," he began. "Firstly, you said there was a war with the geth, who you told me drove your ancestors from their homeworld centuries ago. Then you mentioned a second one."

Shaela nodded. "The Reaper War."

Rassen looked at her carefully. "What happened?" He asked softly, glancing from the quarian to Kasumi, who had stopped her search as soon as the word 'Reaper' had been uttered. "Who is Shepard, and what occurred while I was gone?"

* * *

After a moment Balak's gloating smile became too much, and Shepard glared at the batarian as he attempted to rise to his feet. "Balak, what's going on? What have you done?" He demanded, inwardly cursing at the extent of his weakness. Shepard scowled as he found standing up to be a herculean task. How long had he been in that damn tank?

Balak's smile grew wider, his four eyes narrowing at Shepard's confusion. "I thought you'd be more grateful, Shepard. You were in a bad way when we found you. You'd be dead if not for me."

"What are you talking about?" Shepard asked, glancing round at his surroundings, trying to find anything to indicate where he could be. Cutting-edge medical technology, both familiar and unfamiliar, filled the brightly-lit room, with workstations and chairs for a small army of doctors or scientists. He frowned in confusion. Had he been hurt? He ached all over and had been completely submerged in that bizarre liquid, had Balak been healing him? If so then why? The terrorist opposite him had made no secret of the fact he despised him completely and utterly. Holding a gun to his head on the Citadel had made that much apparent. His limbs began to shake with the effort of trying to get up, and he collapsed at Balak's feet, the batarian's mirth palpable as the latter stood over him.

"Whatever happened on the Citadel left you nearly dead, Shepard," the batarian drawled, the light making his sickly pale face look like a skull as he sneered. "Fortunately for you, I was generous enough to have you pulled from the wreckage, though I suppose I shouldn't be surprised you haven't thanked me yet. Humans, such a disrespectful species." Balak activated his omni-tool and pressed a button on it, causing a door behind him to open and two other batarians to enter the room. At his nod, the two of them roughly seized Shepard between them. Instinct kicked in and the Commander attempted to fight back, but his limbs felt heavy and unresponsive, almost like he was attempting to move through quick-sand. In spite of the situation, his eyelids felt heavy as the two guards easily over-powered him and held one of his arms each. Balak sneered again at his attempts at resistance, before nodding to the two men holding him.

"Take him to one of the cells. Tell Mandalore that none of her people will guard him. If necessary, remind her that she can have him only once I'm finished." The man who had once attacked Terra Nova began to turn away, causing Shepard to shout at him with the last of his strength.

"Balak!" His eyes were almost completely closed now, but Shepard still saw Balak tilt his head, even though his back remained turned. "Did we… did we win? The Reapers…" He barely managed to see Balak glare at him impassively before he nodded again to the two guards, and Shepard felt himself slip into unconsciousness.

* * *

"I… How is that even possible?" Neither woman answered Rassen as he lurched to his feet, looking from one to the other as though they would suddenly tell him that everything he had just heard was some kind of elaborate hoax. "Sentient starships millions of years old, billions even. That cannot be true; no technology can operate for that long."

"It's true, Rassen," Shaela said firmly but gently, the quarian walking over to him before taking his hands in her own. She gently squeezed them as she stared up at him, no sign of deceit anywhere in her eyes. "I know it sounds ridiculous, most of the galaxy didn't believe in their existence at first, but they were very real." The quarian slowly closed her eyes as she looked away, causing Rassen to instinctively draw her closer as he sensed she was remembering something unpleasant.

"I'm not… not sure, Shaela. Just the idea of anything being that ancient is beyond me. Remnants of civilisations thousands of years old surviving is one thing, but machines that old…"

"Rassen, do you trust me?" Shaela was looking at him again, eyes determined behind her visor.

"You know the answer to that, Shaela."

"Then believe me." The quarian reached up to cup the back of his neck before leaning up right onto the tips of her toes in order to press her mouthpiece against his lips. Shaela gently stroked his cheek as she pulled away, but the beseeching look in her eyes never vanished. "Please," she whispered.

Rassen swallowed slightly before nodding in reply. "Okay." He muttered. "Okay. So the Reapers were beyond ancient machines that everyone in this galaxy opposed while I was gone and eventually defeated them. But how does Shepard factor into this?"

"I'm probably the better person to ask about that, big guy."

He glanced over at Kasumi in surprise, almost having forgotten about her during the moment with Shaela. The shorter woman obviously picked up on his slight disorientation, a small smirk pulling at her lips despite her earlier distress. "You told me you know him," he said slowly, noticing Shaela gasp as she too turned to face Kasumi, "but not how." He let silence hang for a moment before asking a question he had mulled over since he had first met the strangely dressed woman. "Who are you, Kasumi?"

"I'm one of Shepard's crew, well, ex-crew might be more appropriate."

"What!"

* * *

Both Kasumi and Rassen turned to face her, causing Shaela to blush slightly in embarrassment at her outburst. Pushing down the sensation, she turned to glare at Rassen, who was smirking slightly at her reaction, before returning her gaze to Kasumi. "What are you talking about?" She demanded. "Everyone knows who Shepard's crew were; Garrus Vakarian, Liara T'soni, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy. If you were a member of Shepard's crew, then why doesn't anyone mention you?"

Kasumi shrugged slightly. "In my line of work, it helps to maintain the smallest presence possible in the galaxy."

Shaela crossed her arms as she glared at the woman opposite her. "And what is this line of work?" She asked. "What would cause you, if you were a part of Shepard's crew, to keep your identity a secret?" Seeing Kasumi hesitate, she pressed on. "You saved me and Rassen," she said more gently, gesturing at herself and the man next to her, "and we told you about what happened several years ago. If you want us to help you, then we deserve the truth, Kasumi."

The hooded woman stared at her in surprise before turning her attention to Rassen. "I see why you like her," she said approvingly. "She can be pretty intimidating when she wants to be."

Despite her suspicion, Shaela felt more than a small amount of her anger evaporate as Rassen put an arm round her shoulders and embraced her. "I agree with you there," he smirked. "Remind me to give you a bit more detail about the two times she saved me from Zaressh. Both times, I was not sure whether she would attack me as well." Shaela glared up at him, but felt her anger recede again when Rassen winked down at her, the human clearly getting the reaction he wanted.

"Ahem."

The two of them turned their attention back to Kasumi, who was grinning at the two of them now. Upon seeing that they were both looking at her, Shaela noticed the grin fade as Kasumi became more serious than she had come to expect from the human woman. "I don't go round just telling people this," Kasumi began, "but after what we've already gone through together, you both should know. I was one of the people who joined Shep against the Collectors back when they were abducting whole human colonies. I never advertised that I was involved, and the others made sure to keep quiet about me."

"Why?" Shaela asked in confusion. "Stopping the Collectors is something to be proud of, so why would you want that kept between only a few people?"

Kasumi's grin was back as she replied but now there was a trace of nervousness there. "Because I'm a thief by trade. The best thief in the galaxy even." She turned to face Rassen. "I'm probably the best thief in _two_ galaxies. Part of that means remaining unknown by as many people as possible. Security tends to tighten if someone knows the ex-business partner they cheated has hired someone as good as me to relieve them of a few valuables."

Shaela felt herself shift uncomfortably. "You're a thief," she repeated, a feeling of disgust beginning to build in her stomach.

"I only steal from people who deserve it. Shep had that much of a lasting influence on me." Kasumi turned serious again, the other woman's expression changing to one filled with so much pain that Shaela instantly felt sorry for her. "This isn't about me," Kasumi whispered. "This is about Shepard. You remember the Bahak incident? He did that to buy us time against the Reapers. The batarians though, they wanted him to suffer for that and probably still do. They might be hurting him right now. I saved your lives, but then you saved mine, that makes us even. Please, do this for Shepard, not me."

Shaela swallowed heavily before glancing at Rassen, who stared back at her calmly. Unlike her, he had already made his decision, she could tell. She turned back to Kasumi. "Can you give us a moment?" She asked the thief, who nodded slowly before silently leaving the cockpit. After a moment, she pulled away from Rassen in order to close the door and begin pacing up and down as she began thinking. Rassen watched her, the human's eyes gently observing her as two different parts of her mind battled for dominance.

"Are you all right?"

She sighed, raising her hands to her head, only to scowl when they made contact with the metal of her helmet rather than the material of her hood. "I don't know," she answered honestly. "Kasumi saved us, Rassen. But she steals from people. It looked like it took a lot for her to admit it, but—"

"You are not sure whether you want to help a thief." She heard Rassen sigh gently as he continued to watch her pace. "Why is that such a problem, Shaela?" He quietly asked.

"Why do you think?" She wheeled round incredulously. "Rassen, she takes the property of other people without asking and never returns it. People like her deliberately do wrong and sometimes even get away with it."

Rassen walked over to her before taking her hands in his own as she had done to him earlier. "But why are you so upset, Shaela?" He asked. "I can understand the idea of not wanting to associate with someone who steals as a general principle, but it seems more personal than that to you." He released one of her hands in order to gently raise her chin so she couldn't avoid looking into his eyes. After a moment, her resolve broke, and she began to explain.

"I suppose there is," she muttered, still staring into the blue eyes that were so unlike a quarian's. They didn't glow, which she had found strange about humans, asari, turians, and every other race upon first learning about it as a child. Still, Rassen's eyes were fascinating in their differences to her own, the way in which his pupils dilated or constricted depending on the amount of light present in particular had always been intriguing. Shaela felt her cheeks heat up as she released that the two of them were still staring into each other's eyes. Seeing that Rassen was about to again ask her what was wrong, she pushed on before he could.

"Do you… do you remember that woman back when we first met, the human one who tried to tell you to stay away from me?" She waited while Rassen thought for a moment before continuing. "After my people lost their homeworld, none of the other races trusted us. Because we were confined to the Migrant Fleet and young quarians left with the aim of bringing something important back, rumours began to spread that we stole from members of the other races. They weren't true but a lot of people believed them, which was why we became so disliked, even hated by the other races."

Realising her voice had begun rising, Shaela took a deep breath to calm herself slightly before continuing. "It just seems wrong to work with someone we know is an actual thief, who steals from people and seems proud of it, while centuries of quarians were hated because people thought they liked to steal when they didn't."

Rassen nodded thoughtfully. "If it makes you feel any better," he said finally, "I do not like the face that Kasumi is a thief either, just in general. That being said," at this the human pressed his forehead against hers, which caused Shaela's breath to hitch slightly in her throat, "Kasumi has told us the truth. She could have lied to us, but she freely admitted to being what she is. While we did just tell her about the Force among other things, I don't think we mentioned how it can be used to determine if someone is lying."

"I know," Shaela admitted, "but I'm still not sure I like the idea of working with her. I mean she seems like a good person but still…"

"Would knowing my opinion help?"

"It might."

A flash of pain crossed Rassen's face for a moment, prompting her to raise her free hand to cup one of the human's cheeks. He smiled at the gesture before moving the hand on her chin so that it rested against one of hers. Well, it would have if her helmet wasn't in the way. Shaela felt a sudden stab of resentment towards her enviro-suit. It kept her alive, but why did it have to take away from what was otherwise a perfect moment? Her train of thought was interrupted as Rassen spoke, the human's voice washing over her and soothing away her frustration.

"Kasumi's determination, the way in which despite her injury she is willing to head straight into danger to save Shepard, it seems less like saving a hero and more like saving someone she's close to. I did not see a thief when she asked for our help; I saw someone who is desperate."

Shaela frowned. "Do you think she sees Shepard as a friend?" She asked after a moment.

"No." The pain was back now. "She hid it well but I could sense it. Before you returned, the expression she had… the emotion there," Rassen shook his head slightly, "it reminds me of what I saw in the mirror every morning for the last two years."

It took a moment for her to process what Rassen was getting at. Shaela's voice came out softer than she thought it would as the implication began to sink in. "Do you mean," she asked almost silently, "that Kasumi might be…"

Rassen's eyes were determined as he stared back at her. "What would either of us do," he murmured, "if the other were in Shepard's position?"

* * *

For once in her life, Kasumi genuinely hated waiting.

While it was never an enjoyable activity, she was normally able to tolerate it. Observing the patrol route of a guard, staying in hiding until a security system was taken down for maintenance, or simply flying a ship from one side of the galaxy to the other took time, even if the latter did benefit from faster than light travel. Patience was one of the most important traits of any good thief, and she hadn't been exaggerating when she had said she was the best there was. It had been a difficult attribute to learn, but she had learned it through forcing herself to always keep her end goal in mind. Waiting for a guard to turn a corner made it easier to steal the priceless artefact he was protecting after all.

Now though she was unable to keep from fidgeting, constantly activating and deactivating her omni-tool as she tried anything to make the wait end faster. For possibly the hundredth time, her eyes moved in the direction of the cockpit from where she leaned against a wall in the room next to it. She could eavesdrop on the conversation; it would obviously be no test of her skills. But doing so just seemed _wrong_ for a lack of a better word. Rassen and Shaela were not corrupt businessmen, pirates, or even art collectors who had unknowingly acquired a piece that had caught her fancy. No, they were two people considering whether to help Shepard, whether to help her, putting their lives in danger if they agreed. For once it didn't seem right to eavesdrop.

The whole situation felt strangely familiar but she knew why.

 _Keiji._

It was like going after his greybox all over again but instead of getting help from Shepard, he was the thing that needed rescuing.

After a couple of minutes of continuing to activate and deactivate her omni-tool, she noticed the message notification icon blinking incessantly at her. Curious, she touched the icon, revealing a message with a short video clip attached. The thief's eyes widened as she reached the bottom of the message.

 _Kasumi,_

 _This 'Rassen' barely seems to exist. The only traces of him I could find are several years old and range over a period of only two months. He spent most of that time on Omega before going to a small mining colony named Querra. From there he vanished, though his companion (more on her below) bought a ticket off-world a week later. He appears to possess advanced and unique technology like nothing I've ever seen, so be careful around him._

 _As to whether he can be trusted, I don't know. All I know for sure is that he is more than capable of defending himself. The omni-tool recording below is of a man I believe to be him, based on your image. He appears to be accompanied by a female quarian, the same one who left Querra without him, but I could not narrow her identity down any further than that. With the millions of quarians there are, even accessing the Migrant Fleet's records and knowing what her suit looks like meant I was unable to work out who she could be._

 _Try to find out more from 'Rassen' and stay safe. The Reapers are gone but some days it really does seem as though the galaxy is just as dangerous as it was when they were still around._

— _Liara_

Kasumi started the clip, attention focused on the video as it began playing. A figure, similar to Rassen but wearing a mask, was wielding a bright-blue energy sword—a lightsaber, she remembered from their conversation just over an hour ago—and was in the middle of fighting a number of armed thugs. The figure blocked their shots with his own weapon, feet moving as he continued to defend himself. Seeing a familiar looking enviro-suit, Kasumi quickly paused the video.

 _Definitely Shaela, though her suit looks much less battered. That makes this guy Rassen then, strange fashion sense with the mask though._

The video did not go on for much longer; Rassen, Shaela, and their attackers vanishing from sight as the person recording was swept away by a panicking crowd, but Kasumi had got the drift by that point. A sudden clunking noise caused her to look up, deactivating her omni-tool and pushing any thought of the video to the back of her mind. She stood up, taking a deep breath as she stared at the door to the cockpit expectantly.

She felt a very uncharacteristic surge of intense nervousness as the door opened, Rassen and Shaela walking over to her, the quarian observing her with the same caution she had when they first met. Rassen seemed more at ease, though his facial expression was hard to read. As far as she could tell though, he seemed satisfied.

"Before either of you say anything, I need to say something first," she blurted out, catching Shaela off-guard, if the split-second glow of the quarian's mouthpiece was of any indication. "Like I said earlier, back there with the Mandalorians… we're even." Seeing that Rassen was about to interrupt, she pressed on. "I know I saved the two of you, that was kind of obvious from how you were both at gunpoint, but I would be dead right now if not for your help." She looked at quarian. "Yours especially, Shaela." Glancing between the two of them for a moment, she continued. "As far as I'm concerned; I saved you, and then you saved me. So, don't feel under any obligation to help me because of anything that happened before now." Silence fell as the human and quarian looked at each other, causing Kasumi to frown in confusion.

 _How the hell are the two of them able to read each other's facial expressions and body language that well?_

She was taken out of her musings by Shaela clearing her throat. To her surprise, the quarian marched straight over to her before extending a hand, causing her to glance down at it in surprise. She heard Shaela sigh, causing her to glance back at the quarian's visor as the latter's eyes moved from her to the offered hand and back again. After a moment Kasumi hesitantly took the outstretched hand, Shaela gripping hers firmly as the two of them slowly shook hands.

Kasumi looked over at Rassen, who smiled slightly as he stared at Shaela, before he looked at her and allowed his smile to widen. Kasumi felt a wave of relief wash over her as the quarian spoke, causing her to return her gaze to the woman who now seemed to be looking at her with a small smile of her own, if the shape of her eyes was of any indication.

"All right," Shaela said firmly, "we'll help you. But we have a few conditions."


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: This will probably be the last chapter for a short while. Updates are likely to slow down again as a result of life getting a bit more hectic, which is unfortunate. Still, I have no intention of abandoning this story, so I'll continue to send out chapters whenever I can.**

 **Reviews:**

 **AnarionRising27: I'll try to keep them coming. I hope you have a great year!**

 **Etain-SheWolfOfThePicts:** **I can't tell you that, I'm afraid. Need to keep any spoilers to myself!**

 **seabo76:** **Thank you. The next chapter is here. Stick around for more!**

 **Chapter 12: The Calm**

The conditions had been very reasonable, all things considered, Kasumi thought to herself as she piloted the batarian ship to their destination. The ugly but functional craft, painted in black and grey, gliding silently through the void of space. Keeping an eye out for any sign of trouble, the thief allowed herself to reflect on what she had promised the other two occupants of the ship half a day prior.

Firstly, she had agreed that she wouldn't steal anything belonging to either Shaela or Rassen. In fact, she had even gone so far as to agree to not steal anything from anyone while they were helping her. It was probably a testament to just how worried she was about Shepard that Kasumi had accepted that demand, given that her tendency towards kleptomania tended to kick in within hours of inactivity. In truth, that was one of the issues she had been forced to deal with on board the Normandy during the mission to stop the Collectors. Having to remain confined to the ship for long periods of time, since Shepard had a tendency to bring only two people with him at once, had often meant there were week-long periods where she had to find her own entertainment.

That hadn't been a problem whenever they had docked with the Citadel, but when in remote areas, it had proven maddening. It had only got worse as they drew closer and closer to the inevitable trip to the Omega 4 Relay, since the Commander had, for some unexplained reason, stopped picking her to go with him as often as he once did. That was not to say she had been his most frequent choice. Garrus had enjoyed that distinction, often making sure to mention it to the rest of the crew with his trademark sarcastic sense of humour.

The second term had been that while both Rassen and Shaela understood her need for urgency, they had insisted that they should at least notify anyone who could help them. Both had also insisted that they rest for a short period, hence why they were not already at their destination. When she had tried to protest, the two of them had explained that while they both agreed the three of them needed to get Shepard free as soon as possible, all three of them were exhausted and they might not be able to find a way to rescue him that they could pull off on their own. She had eventually agreed, having sent Liara a message explaining the entire situation and asking her to send whatever help she could. Shaela had muttered something about her family and an asari matriarch, and had likewise sent a request of her own.

The final condition had been that the three of them needed to come up with a plan. They had examined the previous locations the ship had visited and come up with the most likely one where they could find more answers. When she had seen it, Kasumi had almost laughed in disbelief.

Aratoht, in the Bahak System.

The planet as it had once been no longer existed. The destruction of the Alpha Relay had resulted in a massive explosion, the biggest she had ever seen. They had all thought that the entire system had been destroyed.

Apparently that hadn't been the case.

Aratoht and its fellow planets had been blown to pieces, many of which had been instantly vaporised. A number of those chunks had survived though, drifting aimlessly through space as asteroids. The ship she, Rassen and Shaela were on had visited the largest surviving part of Aratoht multiple times, according to the ship's log she had continued looking at after accepting the latter two's terms, in fact spending the longest amount of time there compared with any other destination. The implication was clear; the batarians, presumably with the Mandalorians, were based there, meaning that Shepard was probably being held somewhere nearby, possibly even in the same facility. If so, that was a mistake. Kasumi couldn't help smirking slightly at the thought. Having Shep close enough to keep an eye on him was smart. Having him close enough to keep an eye on and then him finding an opportunity to escape meant you ended up dead.

The plan so far was for the three of them to head directly to the coordinates provided by the ship's log. Though she had thought the mass relay in the system itself had been completely destroyed, the log claimed it was still part of the relay network, though how that could be the case Kasumi hadn't a clue, given the scale of the explosion. That was something they would clearly find out more about when they got there. Rassen had continued to examine the datapad and had found that identification would be required before they would be allowed within a certain range. This would be twofold; the ship's profile had to match one of the ones on record and they had to be able to successfully answer a security question of some kind. The first was already sorted, since they were currently flying a batarian ship which they knew had already gone there. As a side note, she didn't like the name. _Bo'slaak_. Still, they had the ship, which was much more important than any problems she had with the previous owner's taste in names.

The second would give them more trouble, since the datapad held no indication of what the question could be. Assuming they answered it successfully though, they would request permission to land, and she would then leave the ship to scout out whatever facility the batarians and Mandalorians had. Once she had found what they needed, they would attempt to break Shepard out if he was there and it was possible, or if not, they would have to wait for help to arrive. Kasumi hoped it wouldn't come to that though. Still, even she had to admit that while she was good, sneaking out with Shepard would be much more difficult than simply sneaking in by herself. There was a contingency plan though, just in case they had a good opportunity to free the Commander but she couldn't do it alone or ran into trouble. Unsurprisingly, she and the person who had come up with it thought it was a good idea, but the third among them had not.

She had spent more than twenty minutes arguing with Rassen and Shaela, explaining that she was fine and would be ready to infiltrate whatever base there was as soon as they arrived. Neither had been keen on letting her go off alone, and both had initially tried to dissuade her. After she had managed to convince them that it was the best course of action, one of the couple had put forward a suggestion.

* * *

Kasumi watched Rassen as the latter nodded slowly, clearly beginning to accept her proposal. The slight frown on his face though, gave away that the Jedi was not happy about it. Before she could open her mouth to assuage his fears as best she could, he spoke first.

"Very well," he relented. "I agree with you, Kasumi. If you say you have done this sort of thing hundreds of times, I believe you. I do have one concern, however."

She frowned, sitting up more in her chair. The two of them were currently seated opposite one another, in the room behind the cockpit of the ship, which seemed to double both as a mess hall and armoury, though there weren't as many weapons as was probably normal. Presumably the batarians needed them elsewhere. "Go on," she ventured, glad he had finally relented but still slightly suspicious.

"During an inspection of this ship's supplies before you regained consciousness, I discovered that there is a suit of Mandalorian armour in storage," Rassen elaborated, "and it appears to have been measured for someone relatively tall. Chances are that it might fit me."

* * *

Naturally, the implication had not gone down well with the quarian piloting the ship, who had been contributing to the conversation through the open door of the cockpit. Eventually however, she and Rassen had managed to convince Shaela that of all the means they currently had at their disposal, the Jedi being on standby would be the best backup plan. Shaela herself could not leave the ship, being unable to pass as a batarian or even a Mandalorian, since the armour would not fit her. She had therefore very begrudgingly agreed to remain on the ship and support them from a distance. Kasumi had promised to provide the means for her to do so.

As well as Rassen wearing the armour so he could be there should she need him, his plan also had the benefit of reducing the suspiciousness of their arrival. It would look very bizarre if they were to land and no one appeared to leave the ship. That meant that once they landed, he would disembark in the spare armour, claiming the other crew of the ship were currently being decontaminated, having somehow encountered a dangerous pathogen that could survive Watchman's lethal conditions. Rassen would still try to remain near the ship, diverting anyone who approached it in order to buy her the time she needed to find out everything she could. Kasumi hoped she wouldn't need any help and could get Shepard out without any complications if he was indeed there. Still, knowing help would be available certainly felt… nice. When she stopped and thought about it, she hadn't really worked with anyone since the Normandy SR-2. The Crucible didn't count; she had made a point not to get too close to anyone while contributing to the project.

Kasumi sighed slightly as she angled the ship towards the system's relay, Watchman now little more than a small orb behind them. Hopefully this time they would not have to worry about being shot down. There was no obvious reason for concern, given that the batarians were unlikely to simply fire on one of their own ships for the sake of it. Anyway, examining the ship more closely had revealed to her that it was almost certainly the same one that had shot them down earlier, meaning there was no reason to believe another batarian ship was somewhere in the immediate vicinity. Furthermore, since it hadn't even been a day since they had been shot down, chances were that the batarians and Mandalorians had no idea one of their vessels had been stolen. The odds of them being fired on again were non-existent but Kasumi couldn't help but feel a small amount of worry. Being shot at while on a ship was never a fun experience.

A sudden feeling of faintness caused her to blink sluggishly several times, and the ship around her seemed to spin for a moment before stopping. Kasumi shook her head in frustration at the sensation. Despite Rassen's earlier concern, she had insisted on flying the ship to Aratoht. She needed to be doing something and flying was a productive activity. This was the first serious sign since waking up that she wasn't at her best though, which caused a stab of frustration. She needed to keep her head in the game, if the people holding Shepard were to suspect anything was out of the ordinary… that didn't bear thinking about.

* * *

Both of them knew Shaela wanted to ask him something.

Rassen remained where he was as he felt the quarian's frustration continue to mount. The Jedi breathed in deeply through his nose before exhaling through his mouth, posture straight as he knelt on the floor of the small storage room, each of the lights above him on but barely providing any illumination. Shaela was currently watching him; he could practically feel those silver eyes, wide with concern. He knew her so well despite all of the time they had been apart, seen the look of anxiousness when he had provided only minimal detail to Kasumi about what had occurred to him over the last few years. A large part of him wanted to tell her, knew he should tell her. A larger part didn't want her to worry about him, to risk something going wrong in the near future. The obvious counter was that she would worry about him regardless, so why not tell her?

Because he was afraid that she would more worried actually knowing what had happened than she would be if he kept silent.

"Rassen?" Her voice gently pushed his thoughts aside, the interruption of his meditation somehow both frustrating and welcome at the same time. "Rassen, we need to talk."

He nodded slowly, opening his eyes to see the quarian sitting opposite him, cross-legged instead of kneeling. That had been one of the obvious signs she knew something was wrong. He had been expecting her to ask him to continue teaching her about the Force ever since they had been reunited, and now was a perfect opportunity; they had a few hours, even if that was only a little time. Instead, he had sensed her sit down opposite him and give no indication she desired to learn at the moment.

"Of course," he replied. "What would you like to talk about, Shaela?"

The quarian seemed unsure of herself as she looked round the room, eyes moving over metal containers filled with cheap rations before replying. A small smile worked its way onto his face despite the seriousness of what he knew she was about to ask. Years later, she was still the same person she had been when they had been separated.

Shaela returned her gaze to his own, shifting slightly in position in that way that was so typically her. After a minute or so of silence, she went straight to the heart of the issue, but not in the way he expected. "You've been different," she paused, and he knew she had seen him tense almost imperceptibly. "Over the last few days, I mean."

Rassen sighed slightly before replying. "It has been a trying few days for all of us, Shaela. I'm sorry if I have worried you. But any difference in my behaviour has been the result of the strain we are all under."

The quarian nodded slowly, light-blue visor catching the dim overhead light. "That would make sense," she said gently, "but that's not actually it, is it?"

"What do you want me to say?"

Shaela moved closer, firmly wrapping her arms round him. "I've seen you under immense pressure before," she whispered, mouthpiece near his ear. "Back when we were worrying about Zaressh. It was never as bad as this though."

"Like I said, I'm sorry to have worried you," he whispered back, his own voice having dropped to match hers. He felt her arms tighten as he returned the gesture. The tension in her muscles was palpable.

"Rassen," Shaela's voice was pleading now. "I know that something happened to you during the last few years." He was about to reply, but the quarian pushed on before he could. "If you don't want to tell me about it," Shaela said hurriedly, "that's fine. Just… Just remember that I'm always here when you need me, okay?"

Rassen was very glad she could not see his face. "I know, Shaela," he whispered. "But again, you do not need to worry."

The sorrow in her voice very nearly caused him to tell her everything. "Okay," she breathed sadly. He was about to try and reassure her again but then Kasumi's voice reached them from the ship's intercom.

"We're just coming up on the mass relay. We'll be in the Bahak system at any moment."

Rassen slowly pulled away from Shaela, finding himself unable to look the quarian in the eye. "I need to change into the Mandalorian armour," he muttered. He quickly stood, nodding in response to the quarian's whispered acknowledgment before leaving her alone in the small room.

* * *

The armour was substantially heavier than he was used to, even though he had not yet donned the helmet. Kasumi had spent less than five minutes alone with it when he had first told her his suggestion, before triumphantly announcing she had installed a small communicator. This, she claimed, would allow him to speak to both her and Shaela without arousing the same suspicion as having an active omni-tool out. The thief herself claimed she did not need one, something about the trademark orange glow being easy to conceal if you knew what you were doing.

Rassen rose to his feet from where he had been sitting in thought. He then detached his lightsaber from the belt that was a part of the armour set, slowly lifting the unignited weapon, noticing how the motion was fractionally but still noticeably more difficult than normal. He mimed swinging the weapon diagonally through an enemy, the heavy plates of blue and white armour fortunately not cumbersome enough to prevent him from executing the move as normal. Also fortunate was that the suit was a standard Mandalorian set, rather than one like the commandos had worn on Watchman. The blue and white sets were much more common, meaning he was less likely to attract attention. Commandos were less numerous than regular Mandalorians, meaning that if he were wearing one of their suits, someone was more likely to realise he was an imposter.

The Jedi nodded to himself in satisfaction before glancing at the black and steel-coloured cylinder in his hand, approval quickly vanishing. There had been a rather serious flaw with his contingency plan, and he was looking right at it.

Mandalorians did not normally carry a lightsaber. On the rare occasion they did, it was as a trophy.

The commando leader had made it clear that his people knew at least one Jedi was at large, though they likely believed there was more than just one. If he brought the lightsaber with him, then he would attract all sorts of attention. While he could indeed claim it was a memento taken from a Jedi, that would only lead to the question of why a standard Mandalorian had been allowed to keep the weapon, while none of the half a dozen commandos had claimed it for themselves. Furthermore, the suit he currently wore was of the same design as the one worn by the Mandalorian he had found with the batarians aboard the ship, meaning he had presumably been ordered to stay there and ensure the batarians did not leave the commando squad behind on Watchman, having conveniently 'forgotten' about them. Passing for the one standard Mandalorian who had been on the ship would be difficult if he kept his lightsaber.

As well as a blaster pistol he had also found in storage, there were two pouches on the belt, but neither was large enough to house his lightsaber. If he wanted to remain as inconspicuous as possible by passing for a blue and white armoured Mandalorian, there were only two choices.

Firstly, he could leave it on the ship. Doing so would separate him from the weapon he was most comfortable with, if he needed to move away from the craft for whatever reason. It would also separate him from his best defence against both blaster and even mass accelerator fire. In an ideal world, Kasumi would find out where Shepard was, and if it turned out he was indeed nearby, find a way to get him to the ship without attracting any suspicion. That seemed unlikely though, and he would probably have to do something, even if it was only distracting some guards, in order to enable Kasumi to bring Shepard onto the ship. If he was forced to fight, which was certainly a possibility, then it would be foolish not to have his best weapon close at hand.

The second option was simple; give it to Kasumi.

In the event that something went wrong and the thief needed help, the armour would likely fool anyone he encountered on his way to her, provided of course he did nothing to draw attention to himself. Once he had reached her, Kasumi could then hand over the lightsaber if they needed to fight, sufficiently boosting their chances of making it out alive.

As he had told Shaela; that Kasumi was a thief did not entirely sit well with him. Still, he did not doubt her desire to save the man their enemies held captive, which meant he could see no reason why she would try to sabotage any rescue attempt by refusing to hand over his lightsaber if he needed it. Of the two options, the second definitely seemed to be the best one.

He felt the arrival of another person before he saw them, causing him to glance over to his right. No one appeared to be there, but he knew that was not really the case. Rassen allowed himself to smile slightly, the expression visible to the cloaked woman, since he felt a stab of frustrated confusion from her. He found himself unable to prevent a small amount of mirth from rising up when he sensed that.

"Hello, Kasumi," he smirked. "Are we almost there?"

The air seemed to shimmer, the now familiar black and grey bodysuit appearing as Kasumi pouted slightly at him. "How did you do that?" She demanded. "If I'm slipping then I need to know, particularly considering that the answer to your question is yes."

Rassen finally managed to change his look of amusement into a knowing glance. "I was considering our current situation," he explained, "which meant I was thinking about you, actually. Given that my thoughts were not too distracted, I was able to tell you were coming."

Kasumi whistled in appreciation. "Wish I could do that. Think you could teach me if we get the time some point in the future?"

"That is unlikely. I do not sense any Force-sensitivity from you. To my knowledge, Shaela is the only inhabitant of this galaxy who can use the Force. Even then, that is because of the accidental Force bond between us we mentioned to you during our discussion earlier. "

"Hmm." The thief looked a little put out but quickly turned serious. "Shaela is bringing us up to the asteroid. We'll probably receive an incoming call any second now."

Rassen nodded, picking up the helmet from where he had left it sitting off to one side. "We should join her," he said. "The batarians and Mandalorians will probably pick up that something is wrong if they realise a quarian is on one of their ships."

Kasumi began to leave, only to turn back as a thought seemed to occur to her. "I know Shaela is a bit… unsure about me," she ventured, "so I might be imagining it, but she seems upset about something." The thief shrugged. "Did she seem sad about anything to you?"

The reminder seemed to twist a knife through his stomach. "We discussed something… difficult," he explained lamely.

"Ah." He could tell Kasumi was interested and was silently grateful the woman across from him did not press for more information. After a moment, she changed the subject back to what it had been before. "So… are we going?"

Rassen nodded again. "After you, Miss Goto."

* * *

"Well, there's Aratoht… or whatever's left of it." Kasumi had retaken the controls from Shaela once they had reached her, the other woman gently guiding the ship towards their destination. Ahead of them lay a large asteroid, the rock a dark brown overall but with large sections that had been scorched black from the explosion of the Alpha Relay when Shepard had destroyed it. The thief had examined the relay itself when they had emerged from it to find it intact, telling him that someone called Admiral Hackett had pushed for many other ones to be repaired after the war with the Reapers had ended. Clearly, though, that the one they had used was functional was the batarians' doing. Moments later, Kasumi spoke again. "We have an incoming call; you want to take it, big guy?"

Rassen slid the helmet onto his head, obscuring his features behind the thick metal and T-shaped black visor. "Admittedly no," he replied, voice coming out harsher than normal as a result of the vocabulator built into the area in front of his mouth. "Though of the occupants of this ship, I am the most likely to pass for a Mandalorian."

Kasumi turned her head round to glare at him slightly. "You could have just said yes," she frowned. At his shrug, she turned back to the controls, fingers moving swiftly across them. "I'm connecting the call… now."

A voice came from the interface in front of the thief, a hint of distortion present in the Mandalorian's voice. Rassen nodded slowly. That was a good start; the helmet he wore would help him to sound like a Mandalorian. If a batarian had contacted them then it would have been much more difficult to convince them nothing was amiss.

" _Bo'slaak_ , this is control. Your ship has been successfully identified. Are you ready to receive the security question?"

Rassen glanced at both Shaela and Kasumi, who were looking back at him. He returned his attention to the person on the other end of the conversation. "We are ready," he replied, doing his best to keep his accent to a minimum. While his voice lacked some of the cultured edge it had possessed several years ago, on account of his time exploring so many parts of his own galaxy in an effort to find a way back to this one, it was still noticeable. A Mandalorian might be able to pick up on it, which would set alarm bells ringing.

"It will only be asked once." The voice went silent for a moment in order to ensure it had their attention. "Who is most responsible for saving our legacy after the events of the Mandalorian Wars centuries ago?"

He could feel the tension in the room skyrocket. Kasumi was already preparing to turn the ship round just in case, despite her desire to save the man possibly held on the asteroid they were currently looking at. Shaela had begun to shift her weight nervously from one leg to another, her nervous tic reappearing. Neither of them knew the answer, which of course was the point of making the question that one. Only a Mandalorian would know the answer to a question about the Mandalorians themselves, or a group that had been told would, like the batarians.

Or someone who had spent years of their life studying in temples. Someone who had spent a great deal of time examining different cultures and history, among other things.

Someone like a Jedi.

Rassen took a moment to consider the question. One name leapt to mind, one name truly fit as the answer. As the tension mounted, he spoke, keeping his voice clear and free of any doubt.

"Mandalore the Preserver."

There was a moment of silence, and for one terrible moment, he feared he had got it wrong. Then the other voice returned, the tone now more friendly than before.

"Acknowledged. Proceed to Hanger D3 immediately. Someone will be through to meet you shortly."

Everyone in the room seemed to take a deep breath at the same moment, the tension returning to more acceptable levels. "Affirmative," Rassen said. "Heading to Hanger D3 now." The person at the other end severed the line. He turned to Kasumi who nodded, familiar small smile present as she began to guide the ship towards Aratoht once more.

"You had me worried there, big guy. Don't do that again, okay?"

* * *

Rassen stood next to Kasumi at the still closed loading ramp, the two of them waiting for a moment before opening it. Shaela was currently in the cockpit. As planned, the quarian would monitor things from there, letting them know if there were any signs of trouble. Kasumi had someone managed to give her access to all of the security cameras within the facility within moments of their landing, claiming the system they were tied to was "child's play" to infiltrate. He glanced over at the thief, who was almost as pale as she had been immediately after her injury. "Nervous?" He asked gently.

She jumped slightly, that he caught her off-guard instantly proving just how on edge she was. "Normally I wouldn't be," Kasumi replied. "But normally I'm not trying to save people I care about." Her gaze fell to the floor. There was obviously history there, but Rassen chose not to ask about it. Kasumi needed to remain focused, they could not afford for him to distract her.

"Here," he muttered, holding his lightsaber out to her. At her surprised glance, he elaborated. "I have no way of hiding it from sight. If any Mandalorians spot it, they will be instantly suspicious. Hopefully there will be no trouble but should anything go wrong, chances are that we will have to meet up. You can conceal this on your person until then, at which point you can give it back."

Kasumi nodded slowly as she took the lightsaber from him before smirking slightly. "I'm a little unsure how to feel, Ras. Normally when I see something interesting I have to take it rather than wait for it to be offered."

Rassen crossed his arms, total seriousness present in his voice. "Look after that," he said. "I am more proficient with that than any firearm; not having it with me puts us at a disadvantage if a fight should occur."

The thief nodded again; though this time he could tell she was more serious herself, even though her tone remained light. "You've got it, Ras. I'll keep your magic glow-stick safe.

 _May the Force give me strength._

"One last thing," Kasumi raised an eyebrow in curiosity. Rassen gave her another serious look; though he had the distinct impression she saw that this one was not quite as sincere. "Please do not call me 'Ras.' It does not suit me."

"Is 'big guy' okay?"

"I can tolerate it."

"Heh, understood."

He nodded towards the still-raised ramp. "Ready?" He asked her, genuinely serious once more. He saw Kasumi square her jaw before nodding determinedly. She vanished from sight a moment later.

"Ready."

Rassen turned to the control panel and prepared to lower the ramp, a saying he had never actually used before but always found inspiring rising to the forefront of his mind.

"May the Force be with us."


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Okay, so I guess an explanation is in order as to why this took three months to upload (even though it took me the usual amount of time to actually write). My workload got bigger, and I do mean a lot bigger, so naturally that resulted in an initial delay. On top of that, a family member passed away just after Christmas, though as they were often away for months at a time, the impact didn't truly hit me until their funeral in early February. The latter in particular really drained me of my enthusiasm to keep writing, and then my workload increased again.**

 **Things have calmed down for the moment, and I'm feeling a lot better now than I was. There should not be anything like this kind of gap between the current chapter and the next. I can't guarantee a frequent update rate, as my finals are looming, but I will try to get out one chapter a week if that is at all possible, though it may not be. I still have a lot of enthusiasm for this story, so feedback is welcome as always, especially as I might be a bit rusty.**

 **I normally try to respond to reviews directly if I can, and I honestly can't remember if I did last time as I was a bit all over the place for a while. If I did forget, I'm sorry about that. Speaking of which…**

 **Reponses to reviews are as follows:**

 **AnarionRising27: Thank you very much! I wish this story were as good as Mission Impossible, but even I don't think** _ **that**_ **highly of myself. I've always felt that a story lives or dies by its characters, so that fact you like them so far is great to hear.**

 **JustWriteAnon: I really appreciate your understanding. While I do love doing this, and I also love trying to get better and better, it is a hobby at the end of the day. Life got very heavy for a while, but it's a bit better now. Conflict is one of the best ways to write compelling characters, so I'm glad you're interested in what's happening between them.**

 **seabo76: Thanks! A slow burn tends to lead to a more satisfying conclusion, in my humble opinion. I'll try to keep it up.**

 **Guest (False Masks): I'm glad you liked the concept. Assuming you're reading this, could you perhaps give me an example of when I was a bit too exposition heavy?**

 **Chapter 13: Aratoht**

As soon as the ramp had finished lowering, a quiet hiss accompanying it as it slowly made its way down to the ground, Rassen noticed Kasumi's presence already moving away from where he stood. He glanced in the direction she was heading in, the corner of his mouth lifting in a smile as he noticed a pile of supply crates about fifteen metres away. Each of the boxes was about two feet tall and just over a metre long, and they were all coloured a uniform light grey. What had caught his attention, however, was what appeared to be an air shaft built into the wall a few metres behind the crates, which was presumably the thief's target. Despite his height, Rassen could only just see the entrance from where he stood, including the simple metal cover that protected it, and even then that was because he had been looking for whatever had caught Kasumi's attention. How the grey and black clad woman had spotted her target, considering her much shorter stature, he hadn't the faintest idea.

Remembering he had his own job to do, Rassen began to walk down the ramp, eyes moving all around as he tried to discover as much as possible about his surroundings, though he was careful not to show his interest too openly, keeping his head facing straight on. They had landed in the far side of the hanger, which itself was moderately sized. Several ships of the same design as their own could have fit inside it comfortably, though the sheer number of people it currently contained seemed much greater than the number of vessels it could hold at full capacity would require.

All of the other occupants of the hanger as far as he could see were batarians, and their looks of suspicion and anger at his arrival were not lost on the Jedi. Taking care not to look too obvious while doing it, Rassen quickly examined himself as best he could, frowning in confusion at how nothing appeared out of place. Realisation dawned as a Mandalorian suddenly became visible at the other end of the vast room, only to be met by the same glares from the batarians.

 _The Mandalorians must have a very good reason for working with them if they know the batarians distrust them that much._

Making note of the fact the batarians far outnumbered the Mandalorians, even though they were allies, Rassen turned his attention to his surroundings once more. While a lot of effort had clearly gone into maintaining the hanger; the floors and walls were clean, and the batarians all moved as though they knew their roles, something stood out to him as off. As he reached the bottom of the ramp and moved to stand beside it, feet together and back straight as he projected the aura of a soldier awaiting their superior, Rassen began to realise just what had caught his attention.

Here and there were signs of, for lack of a better term, cost-cutting. For instance, there was a doorway opposite where they had landed and where he stood. Above the door, a number of cables protruded outwards, as though someone had removed the metal panel that normally protected them in order to fix an issue, only to forget to replace it. Other signs of a lack of funding seemed to multiply exponentially as he continued to look for them. Not all of the floor panels matched. Most were of a light grey colour, but others were much darker in tone, some even being jet black. Looking up, Rassen saw that the hanger was illuminated by a number of powerful lights, rectangular in shape, though only about two thirds of them were working. As he watched, one of the sources of illumination suddenly flickered rapidly before cutting out and failing to come back on.

The cleanliness and organisation could only slightly disguise how low on resources the whole operation was.

Deciding now would be a good time to test out whether Kasumi's addition to his helmet actually worked, Rassen decided to contact her, turning off the vocabulator the helmet had come with originally and enabling her communication device.

"Kasumi? Do you read me?"

There was a moment of silence as he waited for a reply. A sudden burst of static caused him to wince before the thief's by now familiar voice reached him.

"What is it, Ras?"

Deciding now was neither the time nor place to remind her of his view on that particular nickname, Rassen pushed the small amount of frustration he felt to one side.

"Have you noticed how cobbled together this place is?" He asked, still standing as though he belonged, which seemed to be working, since nobody had challenged him yet. "It is obviously well-maintained, but it seems that as many corners were cut as possible."

Kasumi's reply was laced with amusement. "You're telling me," she grunted, causing Rassen to open his mouth to ask whether anything was wrong before she elaborated.

"They _really_ went cheap with the ventilation system. There's a lot of rust in here, plus it's one of the smallest ones I've ever had to crawl through."

"You mentioned that you have infiltrated facilities like this one hundreds of times. I take it someone of your occupation is rather well acquainted with air ducts at this point?"

Kasumi grunted again before replying. "Sure am. There was this particularly nasty one back when I was with Sh—" The thief suddenly cut herself off, but it was obvious what she had been about to say.

"Kasumi," Rassen asked gently, "are you all right?"

"I, uh, yes. I'm fine. Just… memories." There was another moment of silence, followed by the return of soft grunts as Kasumi continued her journey through the ventilation system. Before he could ask her if she was certain she was fine, Rassen noticed with some alarm that a Mandalorian had just entered the hanger through the door opposite him, and had begun to approach.

"I am about to have company," he reported to the thief, silently glad that he was currently inaudible to the figure, since the vocabulator was disabled. He kept his eyes on the Mandalorian as they made their way past a cluster of batarians, who glared at the newcomer before going back to what they had been doing before. "Good luck finding what you need."

"Good luck to both of us."

He muttered an affirmative and muted the speech function of the communicator, leaving him still able to hear anything should either she or Shaela need to talk to him, but unable to talk to them himself. He then re-enabled the vocabulator, disguising both actions as a readjustment of the helmet as though he had put it on slightly incorrectly. That done, he turned to face the Mandalorian, who by that point had almost reached him.

* * *

As a quiet beep reached her ears, signalling that Rassen was still available to contact, but could no longer speak, Kasumi pressed on, slowly crawling through the ventilation shaft as quietly as she could. Getting into it had been easy. The hard part had been climbing directly upwards. Now she was crawling horizontally, it was somewhere in between. Even so, she was unable to stop the occasional quiet grunt of effort from escaping. The thief was well aware that she was smaller than most humans, and batarians for that matter, but even so, she couldn't help worrying that she might get stuck. Pushing aside that particular thought as she felt a bought of claustrophobia coming on, Kasumi fixed her eyes firmly ahead, trying to peer through the gloom that lay in front of her.

It was almost entirely dark in the confined space. There was the occasional dim pool of light coloured a dull red every few metres or so, the result of an outdated model of service light that the batarians had clearly got on the cheap. Outside each of those slightly illuminated areas, the rest of the shaft was lost in darkness, the combination of black and red enough to make the way she needed to go look extremely uninviting.

Fortunately, though, she had notified Shaela about what she was going to attempt just before Rassen had contacted her. Unfortunately, she hadn't had the time to connect all three of them to the same frequency. That meant they had to contact one another individually, and so she had been forced to end the call with the former to speak with the latter.

She had reopened the line to Shaela almost as soon as she had finished speaking with Rassen. Given that the plan was for the Jedi to stay where he was, the quarian was currently helping her by attempting to monitor whether there was anyone in the rooms her route led through that might hear her moving. Happily, the other woman seemed to have mastered the camera system surprisingly quickly and was providing constant updates, meaning she had something else to concentrate on besides worrying she might get stuck.

"Keep going, you're currently above a barracks if you are where I think you are, but there's no one below you at the moment." The quarian's voice, normally distorted only slightly by the speaker built into her enviro-suit, was barely audible over the sound of static, the verbal assault causing Kasumi to wince slightly as she moved one arm in front of the other. Thankfully, although she was using her omni-tool to talk with Shaela, she had remembered to fiddle with the volume settings so no one but her could hear the quarian. Muttering a quiet affirmative, the thief felt a brief stab of panic as her shoulders seemed to get stuck for a moment, only to let out a silent sigh of relief as they slipped free after she applied a small amount of force.

 _I must be losing my edge._

"Not all of the cameras seem to be working," Shaela continued, "but most are. I can't risk moving any of them, though, doing that would alert anyone else watching that I'm in the system."

Kasumi let out a low grunt that was mainly acknowledgement, though it was also the result of frustration. Rassen had been right; crawling through various ducts was something she was well acquainted with. Even so, that didn't mean she liked it. As her shoulders got stuck temporarily for a second time, and she realised she would probably be spending longer than she would have liked in the ventilation system, she decided she might as well use the opportunity to find out just what the tension between her two companions had been about, though she would have to keep her voice quiet.

"So… you and Rassen seem to be really into each other."

As soon as the words left her mouth, she winced. Was that really the best she had? Sure, she hadn't simply asked outright what had happened between the two of them, but even so, the conversation starter had sounded much better in her head.

 _Way to be subtle, Kasumi._

"I-I'm sorry?" Shaela sounded completely caught off guard by the statement, causing the thief to wince again. "O-oh right, yes, I guess we are," she stammered. "Um… why did you say that?"

Her muscles were beginning to burn from being forced to crawl for so long. Kasumi pushed away their growing protests as she kept going. "It's pretty unpleasant in here, so I wanted to distract myself a bit," she admitted, scowling as a particularly large patch of rust scraped against her body-suit, the noise quiet but still irritating. "Anyway, things seemed tense between the two of you after Watchman," she continued. "I was wondering if you maybe wanted to talk to someone about it."

There was a long silence. Kasumi winced yet again as she continued crawling. Of the two of them, Shaela had seemed by far the least trusting of her when they had agreed to help. Prying into something so private might have been going too far, especially as quarians were historically rather insular as a result of how they had been treated for centuries. The pause in the conversation dragged on for so long that Kasumi was eventually able to spot a break in the darkness ahead, a soft yellow glow which was a different kind of light to those above her. Speeding up slightly in her eagerness to be free of her cramped surroundings, she almost missed Shaela's reply.

"Why are you so interested?"

That was a good question. Was she simply curious? Did she only want to help? Kasumi frowned as a feeling she couldn't identify suddenly welled up. Or was there some other reason for her wanting to get involved that she didn't yet understand? Pushing aside the various other reasons her mind conjured up, she chose to go with the second option.

"Rassen," she forced her shoulders free from where they had just got suck yet again, "well… just before you met up with us, he mentioned he missed you. A lot in fact. And the look on his face when he heard your voice…" Kasumi trailed off, a lump in her throat as she remembered the last time she had seen that look. The same expression had been on Keiji's features when she had used his greybox just before destroying it. That look had left her feeling unsteady because it had been one she had seen many times when they had been together, regardless of whether circumstances had been good or bad. Realising Shaela was waiting for her to continue, she pushed aside the dull stabbing pain that had nestled itself in her stomach and continued on.

"It's just… he…." She shook her head in frustration. "When I saw the two of you together, you both looked so… so _happy_. Then all of a sudden there was this tension between the two of you. I know it's none of my business, Shaela, so if you don't want to discuss it then that's okay. I just… I guess I just want to help."

The pause that followed was shorter than the first but even so, Kasumi had almost reached the yellow light, which she could now see originated from somewhere outside the shaft, by the time Shaela's voice reached her.

"I… I'm worried about him."

Kasumi paused, one arm still outstretched to keep pulling herself along, at the tone of the quarian's voice. She just sounded so… lost for lack of a better term. Shaking her head slightly, she continued crawling.

"Why?"

"He… he's been acting differently to how he did before we were separated. He's… do you remember when he stood over the final Mandalorian?"

"Yes, he looked like he was going to kill him before he even asked him any questions," Kasumi replied, noticing with some relief that the light was shining through a vent cover, rather than what could have been a small hole, which meant she was almost free. "I obviously don't know him as well as you do, but I noticed that he glossed over what happened to him over the last few years. Do you think him being different to how you remember has something to do with that?"

"I'm sure of it," the abundance of static could not hide the fact that Shaela sounded impressed, which caused her to grin slightly despite her surroundings.

 _Heh, still got it._

"I take it you've asked him whether anything is wrong?" Before the quarian could answer, she continued. "No wait, let me guess. When you did he avoided answering the question, or he tried to convince you nothing was wrong."

"I… that's it exactly," Shaela now sounded amazed. "How did you guess that?"

Kasumi allowed her grin to widen as she finally reached the way out. She took a moment to consider her answer as she carefully scanned the metal floor of the room below her for any signs of life, and quickly checked all of her equipment still working as well. While she had obviously done so before leaving the ship, it never hurt to be safe.

"People never want to worry those they care about," she finally replied. "Even though it's almost always a good idea to tell others when something is wrong. Rassen told me you disagreed over something, and you seemed more upset than he did, so by putting all of the pieces together, it's clear he hasn't told you what happened to him. Given the kind of things he can do, I'm going to assume that whatever occurred, it was bad."

"I don't know what to do, Kasumi," Shaela's voice had dropped to a whisper; she could barely hear it over the static now. "I said I wouldn't force him to tell me, but how do I help him?"

The coast still seemed to be clear. Nodding to herself as she prepared to remove the shaft's covering and drop down into the room below, Kasumi replied gently.

"For now? Wait. Once we're back on the ship, keep trying to get him to open up, but don't force it. He's probably got used to having no one to talk to after a few years of chasing leads on how to get back here on his own, so he's probably out of practise confiding in others. Even you. Just… be there for him, and he'll come around."

"I… thank you, Kasumi." The thief smiled at the warmth in the quarian's voice.

"No problem," she grinned, "but I'm going to have to go silent for the moment since I've found an exit. Keep me updated and I'll try to do the same when I can."

"Understood. I'll keep this line open at my end." Even though Shaela's voice was now all business, Kasumi couldn't help noticing there was still a note of gratitude to it.

* * *

Rassen kept his gaze on the Mandalorian as she, he could at least tell they were female they were so close, reached him. He carefully examined the newcomer as she came to a halt a few steps away before standing to attention, feet together and arms at her sides. Given he was already in the same position, the Jedi continued to look at her, waiting for her to speak first.

To his surprise, the Mandalorian seemed nervous, the fingers of one hand closing and opening slowly as she watched him in return. Rassen frowned beneath his helmet at what he assumed was an inexperienced recruit who seemed to have no more idea what to do than he did. The silence dragged on for a moment, the newcomer still looking at him expectantly before she finally spoke.

"Excuse me, sir. Are you all right?"

Rassen blinked in surprise and his jaw dropped open, thrown for a moment by the voice that had come from the person opposite him. The voice that issued from the suit of heavy armour was softer than he had expected, though that was only slightly surprising. No, what had caught him off guard was just how young the Mandalorian presumably was and how, if you were to remove the electronic distortion produced by the vocabulator in her helmet, her voice was very familiar.

In spite where he was, he nearly laughed in disbelief. Of all the Mandalorians who could have been sent to greet their ship, out of the however many currently were in this galaxy, it had to be her.

There was no question he was currently staring at the same Mandalorian he had spared the life of on Horizon.

A million thoughts suddenly raced through his mind. How few Mandalorians were there that he had ended up with this one? Had she recognised him? No, that was impossible. He hadn't said anything, and his own armour covered him completely. The most pressing question of all, though, was why. Why was she the one that had been sent? She was the only Mandalorian he had encountered so far who was still alive. Was the Force playing some kind of sick joke on him?

Realising the woman opposite him was waiting for a reply, Rassen pushed aside his raging thoughts and pulled himself up a little straighter. She had addressed him as a superior, which explained the awkward pause. She had been waiting for him to speak first, and for that matter was still waiting for him to say something.

"Everything is fine," he said, silently glad for the vocabulator in his own helmet and how it made him sound gruffer than usual. He barely avoided betraying his surprise as the woman jumped slightly at his tone, though she still looked at him expectantly. Hoping Mandalorian military procedure was not too different from that followed by the Republic, Rassen stood at ease, feet shoulder width apart, hands behind his back. Quickly realising as he did so that the Mandalorian was still waiting for something, he nodded once, to which she responded by standing likewise. He let out a silent sigh of relief. So far, so good, but between the security question and now the current situation, he was not confident everything would go well indefinitely.

He turned his attention back to the blue and white armoured figure before him as she spoke, her voice soft and nervous, though with a hint of determination present as well. "Mandalore sent me to escort everyone to debriefing," she announced, fingers of one hand still twitching, though more slowly now. She stepped slightly to the side in order to get a better look at the still lowered ramp. "Um, where are the rest of them?"

"I…" Rassen struggled for a moment before he remembered the cover story. "The commando team encountered a foreign contaminant on the surface of Watchman. We currently have no idea what the cause of it was or whether it is dangerous. However, given the temperature of the world and how resilient a pathogen would have to be to survive there, it was decided that no risks should be taken. Everyone who left the ship is currently undergoing repeated decontamination cycles."

"Ah, right. Yes, of course. That makes sense." The young woman nodded quickly, unaware that he was continuing to observe her carefully. Had she recognised his voice yet? Was she only playing along until his back was turned and she could report him to someone else? He reached out subtly to the Force. No, he sensed no alarm from her besides the tension of a few moments ago. As far as he could tell, she believed him to simply be a higher ranking Mandalorian.

"Do you know how long that will take, sir?"

Rassen fixed his eyes on the opaque black T-shaped visor that he knew was identical to his own. "I do not," he said carefully. "One of the batarians mentioned it might take a while, given the decontamination system's unfamiliarity with our armour and the unknown nature of the pathogen itself." The Mandalorian nodded quickly again, mulling over the information for a moment before replying.

"You had better come on your own then, sir. Mandalore herself has set aside the time to personally debrief your group. She probably won't have time to wait around for the commando squad to be allowed to leave your ship."

Rassen winced, though the motion was fortunately lost thanks to the heavy armour he wore. "Are you sure that is necessary?" He asked, still managing to keep an air of authority to his voice despite how her reply had caught him off guard. "The commandoes actually left the ship. I did not. Surely Mandalore would prefer to speak to someone who did not hear what happened via comm chatter but actually set foot on that frozen rock?"

The Mandalorian was shaking her head before he had even finished talking. "She sent me herself, sir. Between you and me, she seemed angry about something. I don't think we should keep her waiting."

Kasumi had only been gone for a few minutes. Given the size of the asteroid, in addition to the fact she was probably still crawling through the vents, there was no way the thief could have managed to find what she needed in so little time, regardless of how experienced she was. Rassen felt his frustration build as he analysed the situation from every angle he could. If he refused to go then he would make the woman in front of him suspicious and also probably make Mandalore, or whoever was claiming to be Mandalore, even angrier than she apparently already was. If he agreed to go, however, then he would have to keep up the façade for longer, increasing the chance that someone would see through it.

Neither option was acceptable. The intelligent thing to do would be to claim he needed to check on something inside the ship and use the time that bought to recall Kasumi. As long as he could convince the woman in front of him to wait several minutes, they could at least start the engines before anyone on the asteroid realised anything was wrong. He was about to make up an excuse to tell the expectant Mandalorian, before he remembered the look on Kasumi's face when he had mentioned Shepard was a captive.

He might have only known her a few days, but he knew she wouldn't leave unless she had answers. Even if he could convince her, he knew from experience what it was like to come so close to finding what you needed only to be denied at the last hurdle. It had been a constant feature of the last few years for him. Decision made, he nodded to the Mandalorian before gesturing past her, resigning himself to the fact that at least he had possessed the foresight to attach a blaster pistol to the belt he wore.

"Lead on, then."

* * *

As she watched Rassen speak with the Mandalorian who had approached their ship, glad that the viewports of the cockpit could be polarised, even though the front of craft was facing away from both him and the newcomer and so there was no chance of anyone spotting her and raising the alarm, Shaela silently allowed herself to be impressed with Kasumi's abilities. She somehow still seemed to know where to go even though she had left the ventilation system. Shaela couldn't dwell on it, though, as her eyes were fixed on her omni-tool and so on every camera feed within the base. Well, every one that seemed to be functioning. Even for those that worked, though, the image quality was still rather poor.

Swiping between the one that was currently trained on Rassen and the ones near Kasumi's position, she gently exhaled, forcing herself to relax. Nothing had gone wrong so far. Kasumi knew what she was doing, unsurprising given that it was what she probably did every single day. The quarian shut down that line of thought before it could lead somewhere unpleasant. Kasumi had been surprisingly sympathetic about Rassen and herself. The least she could do was give the other woman a chance. It was only fair.

Seeing that a group of three batarians was approaching Kasumi's last reported position, Shaela notified the thief, who enabled the speak function at her end just long enough to say she understood before muting it again. So far, the quarian had been unable to spot the other woman through any of the cameras, as she had kept to their blind spots, which were many, given how dimly lit the whole facility seemed to be. That was a good thing, however. If she had seen her, then anyone else monitoring also would have. As long as Kasumi kept her updated as to her current position, though, she could tell her which areas to avoid at least temporarily. A few seconds after the thief told her she had reached an intersection, she hailed Kasumi again.

"A patrol is approaching from a corridor to your left," she noted. "There's a storeroom to your right. Hide in there and I'll let you know when the coast is clear." Kasumi sent back an acknowledgment, and Shaela nodded to herself as the group, this time consisting of Mandalorians, made its way past the human's position.

"All clear," she reported.

Kasumi's voice was less distorted than it had been while she was in the vents, though it still was a little difficult to make out what she said as she emerged from the storeroom. "Thanks," the other woman replied. "Can you—" The connection cut out, causing Shaela's heart to stop for a brief moment before it returned.

"Kasumi, can you repeat that last part?"

"I asked if you can see any terminals near me. If the software guarding them is as weak as the program protecting the security cameras was, then I might be able to find where they're keeping Shepard by accessing one."

Shaela frowned, silver eyes narrowing slightly behind her light blue visor. "Can you do that without anyone noticing? Won't the system at least log that it's been accessed?"

She could hear the smile in Kasumi's voice as she replied. "Not if I delete it the timestamp of me accessing it. You worry too much, Shaela. I know what I'm doing."

"I didn't mean… you know what I meant."

Kasumi laughed lightly as she replied. "I know. No harm done." Her voiced turned more serious. "Can you see one?"

Shaela started flicking between the different cameras, eyes narrowed slightly as she strained to pick up anything Kasumi could use, a task made more difficult by the poor picture quality. Within a minute, though, she saw something. Dragging her fingers to enlarge a section of the feed, she allowed herself a small smile.

"I've got something. There is a… I think it's a shift terminal in an armoury about one hundred metres away from where you are. Take the corridor the patrol just came from. It's clear for the moment, and if you stick to the edges the lighting is bad enough that no-one else monitoring should be able to see you. Then take the… the third door on the right. The terminal is between the third and fourth racks of guns on the left when you go in."

"Got it. As much as I appreciate the help, you better check on your boyfriend to make sure he hasn't managed to get into too much trouble."

Shaela nodded, then sighed when she remembered the other woman couldn't see the gesture. "Will do," she said, switching back to the camera she had used to keep an eye on what was going on outside the ship. An uneasy feeling entered her stomach when she suddenly realised that neither Rassen nor the Mandalorian were still outside the craft.

Flicking between different camera feeds, the quarian swallowed nervously when she finally located Rassen, unharmed, thank the ancestors, following who she guessed was the same person from before through a series of corridors similar to those Kasumi was traversing, though these ones were full of batarians, who glared at the two differently dressed figures as they passed.

If Rassen had left his position, that meant their chances of being discovered had just increased drastically. There was no-one to ward any Mandalorians or batarians away from the ship if someone decided to investigate and, worse still, the Jedi was surrounded by enemies. On top of that, he couldn't sneak away like Kasumi could, meaning there would almost certainly be fighting if something went wrong. As she prepared herself for the very real knowledge things could fall apart at any moment, she contacted the thief.

"You need to speed up. Rassen has been forced to leave the ship. Get to the terminal and find out where they're keeping Commander Shepard so we can leave."

Shaela barely heard the human's reply as she glanced down at the ground next to her, glad that she had the bag of medical supplies and other equipment Wessa had given her near at hand. She gently opened it and removed the kinetic barrier the asari had provided, attaching it to her suit and activating the device. Next, she slowly drew her pistol from its place on her hip, giving it a quick once over to make sure the heat sink was empty.

Ready to go at the first sign of trouble, Shaela took a deep breath as she prepared to contact Rassen. He needed to know what Kasumi's progress was. She could safely update him. He would only have silenced his own ability to talk and could still hear her. With a jolt, she realised they hadn't spoken since he had left her alone in the ship's storeroom. Suddenly apprehensive for a completely different reason, she switched from Kasumi's frequency to his.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Okay, so I guess another explanation is in order. I genuinely wanted to try and get a chapter out a week after my last update, but studying for finals had to take priority. Even though I did have time to work on this story during the last month and a half, I found that once I had spent hours every day reading and going through notes I was so frazzled I just couldn't bring myself to continue. Like I've said before, I'm still very enthusiastic about this story, so assuming anyone is still following it, it will be finished. Furthermore, the update schedule should be much better now. I know I said that last time, but I don't have anything on at the moment (university is done) and so faster updates** _ **will**_ **be the case unless I have a** _ **very**_ **good reason. I'm aiming for a chapter a week, so we'll see if I can stick to that this time.**

 **As an aside, I have a couple of Mass Effect one-shots planned. This story takes first priority, so they will not interfere with the update schedule for** _ **Spectre**_ **. I'm not sure when I'll do those, but I suspect they'll be written at some point in the next couple of months.**

 **As always, please feel free to let me know how this chapter turned out. I feel really out of practise, so I would appreciate it even more than normal (though feedback is always great) if anyone would like to let me know how this upload is.**

 **Responses to reviews are as follows:**

 **AnarionRising27: It's great to be back. As I said, circumstances were difficult for a while, and by the time I was able to start this chapter, it proved harder than expected to get back into writing. On the bright side, I did often think about this story during that time, so I know where it's heading next. As for where that will be... we'll have to wait and see. Thank you for letting me know I still seem to be doing as well (or poorly, if you prefer) as usual.**

 **Guest: We'll see, there's only one way to find out. I have to admit that, as someone who has read plenty of stories on this site, it does give me some (evil) feeling of power knowing that only I know for sure what will happen in the future.**

 **Chapter 14: Realisation**

As the door in front of her opened, an unpleasant squealing noise that caused her to worry someone might hear her accompanying it, Kasumi darted into the armoury. She moved faster than she normally would have, Shaela's warning that they had little time still ringing in her ears. Glancing behind her to make sure no one had seen her enter, the thief pressed her hand against the softly glowing haptic interface next to the door, wincing as it closed with as much noise as it had opened. Feeling slightly reassured at the knowledge she should at the very least hear it if someone else entered, she turned around.

The room before her, much like the rest of the facility she had seen so far, seemed almost dilapidated, with several of the light fixtures not working and those that were providing barely more than the minimum amount of illumination needed to see somewhat accurately. Even though the armoury could not have been much bigger than the Normandy's medical bay, she could only just make out that the far wall was a different colour to the one she now had her back to, the former being a lighter shade of grey. Racks of weapons protruded from the walls on either side of her, leading from the doorway to the far wall, though they did not extend into the centre of the room, which allowed her to see from one side to the other despite the poor lighting.

Each of the racks was taller than she was—probably taller than Rassen, for that matter—and they held seemingly every kind of firearm imaginable, regardless of condition. The variety was staggering; batarian guns of course dominated, with there being plenty of Terminator assault rifles and the like, but there were also many human and turian weapons. As she made her way to where Shaela had said the terminal would be, Kasumi even saw a few asari and salarian firearms, and, she could have sworn, a familiar behemoth of a weapon which seemed even bigger than she remembered.

Reaching the terminal, which she saw had been welded to a section of wall, the thief was genuinely surprised it was still functional, given that its frame was pitted with cracks and scars all over. As soon as she attempted to access it, the screen—coloured a light orange like the haptic keyboard below it—flared red, a dialog box opening, the word "password" appearing in capital letters, along with a space underneath it where anything she typed would appear.

Kasumi smirked as she raised her forearm, omni-tool coming to life with a flash of orange, and began to sift through the different software packages she had built up painstakingly over years of various not strictly legal activities. Locating one of her favourite programs in less than five seconds, she established a link with the terminal and began to upload the file. In even less time than it had taken her to find it, the program had done its work, the dialog box turning a bright green before vanishing, the rest of the screen changing back from red to its original shade of orange.

Her fingers began dancing over her omni-tool, in moments establishing another kind of link between the device and the terminal. A horizontal bar, coloured a darker orange than the terminal screen itself, flashed to life, slowly beginning to fill with a lighter shade of the same colour. In moments the thief would have a copy of all of the files within the network utilised by the Mandalorians and batarians.

Glancing over her shoulder quickly to make sure no one was approaching, though she doubted anyone could have got in without the door behind her making the same noise as before, she then looked back at the screen. The names of various files, ranging from maintenance reports, to schematics of the facility, to things she had never heard of, began to fill it as the download continued. Checking again that no one had any chance to get the drop on her out of habit, the thief opened one of the unknown files at random, the text within it translating before she could blink thanks to her omni-tool.

 _What the hell?_

Kasumi opened a second file, only to feel her unease grow as its implications were even worse than the first's. Checking over her shoulder for a third time, she turned back to the monitor and selected another file, the rest of her body freezing in shock as her eyes roved from left to right, having finally found what she had been looking for. Swallowing almost imperceptibly as the download completed, the thief accessed what was by now a familiar frequency.

"Shaela? It's Kasumi. We can't leave yet." As the woman at the other end began to demand an explanation, she started to erase any sign she had ever accessed the terminal, deleting all records of the various commands she had implemented with barely any conscious thought. She then turned to the rows of firearms around her and began to hurriedly scan them for anything they could use. Grabbing an assault rifle and the huge gun that had stood out from before, she attached them to her bodysuit. The first she fitted to her hip opposite the Locust that rested on its twin and the second she attached to her back, the latter causing her to wince at its weight.

Realising Shaela was still trying to find out what had happened, she cut off the quarian with three words that explained everything.

"Shepard is here."

* * *

As he continued to follow the Mandalorian deeper into the base, the lighting grew increasingly worse.

Rassen glanced upwards, only able to see the ceiling of the corridor he was being led down at infrequent intervals, owing to the lack of illumination. Looking back the way they had come as subtly as he could, the Jedi acknowledged that, at the very least, he would be able to find his way back relatively easily. All he had to do was head in the direction which was better lit.

He turned his gaze back in front as a group of batarians emerged from a door to his left, the three of them shooting glares at both him and the Mandalorian, who paid them no mind. Rassen likewise kept looking straight on as they hissed nearly inaudible insults and threats as they began pushing past.

All he had to do was play along until an opportunity would allow him to separate himself from his guide. If that meant walking and not saying anything, he suspected he could do that successfully. His mind turned to Kasumi. While he had no doubt as to her abilities, she had been much more badly wounded than he had on Watchman. Hopefully she had not encountered too many difficulties so far.

"Sir, what is it?"

Realising he allowed himself to get so lost in thought he had stopped walking, the Mandalorian having followed suit, Rassen silently berated himself for losing focus. "It's just been a while since I've been able to properly rest," he lied. Thinking for a moment as he saw a way to delay their arrival slightly, he continued the conversation before his companion could resume walking. "I found myself unable to sleep properly during the mission knowing our associates were also on board the ship."

The Mandalorian suddenly looked bashful, if it were possible considering the amount of armour she wore. "Can I speak freely, sir?" she asked, after a moment of thought.

"Granted."

"I… I understand why we're working together, but still… something about them rubs me the wrong way." She glanced up and down as though she were afraid more batarians would suddenly materialise out of thin air. "I get the feeling they'd betray us in a moment if they thought they could get away with it."

"I agree," Rassen nodded, considering his next words carefully. The tension between the two groups had been obvious as soon as he, Shaela, and Kasumi had arrived. Probing for more information would be difficult, however. Appearing too interested might make his guide suspicious, and continuing the conversation for too long might reveal gaps in his knowledge that would result in the same outcome. Even so, the three of them needed to know as much about their opponents as possible.

"Have they given you any trouble personally?" he asked, keeping his voice authoritative but injecting a small amount of sympathy.

"Yes, sir," she murmured, causing him to lean forward slightly so he could hear her better. "A couple of them have… have said Mandalore hasn't kept her word. That some of us… me, I mean, aren't as good as they expected."

Rassen nodded again. That explained what the batarians were getting out of the arrangement. Clearly the Mandalorians were to provide muscle, and the batarians, like he himself, had been surprised by the age and inexperience of the woman in front of him. He was about to ask what exactly she had meant by there being others like her, only for the young woman to jump slightly as she remembered where they had been headed.

"We should keep going, sir. Mandalore has been under a lot of stress lately. We shouldn't keep her waiting." As she set off again and he began to follow her, a new voice suddenly spoke.

"Rassen?"

Shaela's interruption was so unexpected that he froze with one foot slightly off the ground mid-way through taking a step. Momentarily off-balance as a result, he staggered awkwardly against nearest wall of the corridor. Glancing up, he noticed with relief that the Mandalorian was unaware of his having stumbled. Cautiously, he flicked off the vocabulator in his helmet and enabled the communicator function Kasumi had installed.

"Yes, Shaela?" he asked softly as he resumed walking, unwilling to take the risk of being overheard by the woman in front of him, even though he knew he was inaudible to her.

"I…" he winced as her voice trailed off before she managed to push through the tension between them. "What happened?" the quarian finally asked. "You're not in position, is everything okay?"

"Sort of." Rassen continued to observe his surroundings as he resumed walking, constantly checking that he could indeed make it back to the hanger as easily as he had at first assumed. "As you probably saw, I am currently with one of the Mandalorians. Apparently their leader wants to be informed in person as to what occurred on Watchman. I could not refuse to accompany her without arousing suspicion."

"What? Rassen, they'll realise you aren't a Mandalorian if they start asking you questions you don't know the answers to."

"I know," he replied. "Hopefully Kasumi will have found what she needs before we get that far. Once she has, I will try to get away as quietly as possible." He felt his voice turn grimmer. "We may have to fight our way out, though I would rather we not."

"Me neither." A determined note entered the quarian's voice now. "But we'll do that if we have to. I'll tell Kasumi to let us know as soon as she has what she needs." There was a moment of silence before she continued. "How are you going to get away, though?"

Rassen didn't say anything for a moment as he mulled over the question. Just how would he separate himself from the woman in front of him? She might have been helping the same people that had destroyed an entire colony, but she herself, as far as he was aware, had not taken part in the slaughter. Despite his desperation the first time they had met, he had refused to kill her, and the idea of doing so now filled him with the same disgust he had felt then.

As she turned left into another corridor and he followed, a small smile appeared on his lips when he saw it was empty and lined with doors on each side. His omni-tool translated the words that labelled each almost instantly. He glanced at the closest one, which stood only a few feet away to his right and apparently contained scrap armour plating from some kind ship he had never heard of. The next door along contained a similar sort of thing, as did the ones beyond that.

Turning to glance at the other side of the corridor, the Jedi saw that the doors on that side also led to rooms full of old materials and equipment the Mandalorians and batarians were hording. Given the condition of the facility and the lack of funding it implied, it only made sense that whatever could be salvaged was being held onto until a purpose could be found for it.

 _The Force seems to be in a good mood._

"Rassen?"

Shaking himself out of his musing for a moment, he replied. "Tell Kasumi she needs to work faster. I can begin making my way back now, but that means whoever is claiming to be Mandalore will know something is wrong when neither I or—" The sound of the connection cutting out interrupted his explanation. There was a moment of horrible silence before it returned. He opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, only to slowly close it as the quarian spoke nervously.

"Rassen, Kasumi just contacted me. Commander Shepard is here. She's already heading to his location."

Thinking furiously, Rassen considered the implications. He sighed, resigning himself to the fact the chances of them having to fight had just risen exponentially. The thief only had the ability to turn herself invisible as far as he was aware, meaning it would only be a matter of time before someone noticed their prisoner was attempting to break free.

"Can you monitor the cameras between both of us and where they are holding him?" he asked. "I doubt she will be able to get him out alone, especially if he is wounded in any way."

"I-I think so." The quarian's hesitation made it clear she did not like what he was suggesting, even though they had discussed it earlier. "You… be careful, Rassen."

"I will," he replied gently, "and Shaela?"

"Yes?"

He wasn't exactly sure what to say in that moment. That he was likely to blow his cover helping Kasumi and could get himself hurt or worse? That only a short while ago he had walked out on her when she had been trying to help him? That he somehow had the voice of the Sith Lord she had killed in his head, even if it had been silent for a while?

"I…" Inwardly, he cursed. Their lives were in danger, and he was worrying about what to say to her of all people. In truth, though, only one thing felt right.

"I love you."

The smile he could hear in her voice as she replied seemed to wash his concerns away like they had never existed.

"I love you too."

His own smile faded as he turned his attention back to the escort he was still following. It would not be much, but taking her out of the equation would hopefully ensure her superior would assume she had hit an unforeseen delay. Those extra few minutes could be vital.

"See if you can convince Kasumi to wait for me before breaking the commander out," he said. "I need to end the connection for a moment."

He was so focused on his task he didn't notice Shaela had begun to ask something before he had disconnected the link between them. Noting with relief that the corridor was still empty aside from himself and the Mandalorian, and that she was just making her way past one of the storage rooms, he began to shorten the distance between them, already reaching out to the Force.

* * *

As she continued to observe the camera feeds displayed by her omni-tool, Shaela tried to relax. While they hadn't known for sure that Shepard would be somewhere within the facility, they had known there was a possibility. With Kasumi having decided to go after the hero of the Reaper War, the chances of something going seriously wrong had just risen significantly. Even so, nothing had happened yet, and both the thief and Rassen had avoided discovery so far.

 _So why do I have a terrible feeling about all of this?_

The moment after she and Rassen had reminded one another how they felt, her happiness had suddenly been replaced by worry. It was stupid to imagine something terrible was destined to happen in the next few moments, she tried to reassure herself. Assuming the worst and preparing for it was one thing, that was simply an intelligent course to take. Yet something felt off. No, felt was the wrong word. She could _sense_ something was going to happen. Just like she had sensed Rassen was in distress back on Rannoch.

It might have been years since she had been taught what little she knew about the Force, but Shaela still knew it was trying to tell her something.

One of her feet began tapping against the floor of its own accord as she tried to work out what it could be. No one had approached the ship since the Mandalorian who had led Rassen away, the Jedi still had not been found out, and Kasumi likewise had avoided detection. Her frustration grew as her mind began to wander in circles, the tapping of her foot growing to the point that she huffed in irritation and went to cross her legs.

She let out a gasp as the motion caught the bag next to her, upending it and sending its contents spilling across the floor of the cockpit. Dropping down to her hands and knees, the quarian righted the bag and quickly began replacing each item, feeling her stomach flip as she examined the antibiotics Wessa had supplied in particular. Many of them were contained within delicate syringes with the name of the substance on the side, and while medi-gel could work wonders, a suit breach would require more specialised supplies in order to deal with effectively.

She sighed in relief as she found nothing had been damaged, ensuring the thermal clips and other more durable items were now at the bottom of the bag, providing a layer of protection for the weaker ones. The medi-gel went next, followed by the antibiotics. Shaela breathed out slowly as she checked the latter for a second time just to be safe, heartrate slowing as she confirmed they were indeed undamaged.

A tinkling noise behind her caused the quarian to turn, silver eyes wide behind her mask as she saw her foot had just caught a syringe she had missed, which began to roll slowly towards one of the walls of the small room. Shaela lunged towards it, manging to catch the cylindrical object before it could strike the hard metal, the material of the gloves that covered her hands allowing her to get an excellent though gentle grip on the object.

 _That was too close._

Looking around to make sure she had missed nothing else, she moved back to the bag, gently placing the runaway syringe back with its fellows. As she withdrew her hand, she noticed what the text on the side said, causing her to gasp in surprise.

"Keelah!"

* * *

Grunting slightly in exertion, Rassen hefted the unconscious Mandalorian over one shoulder, wincing at her weight. While she was much shorter than him and as a result much lighter, the heavy armour they both wore made the task harder than he had expected. Ensuring there was no chance of him losing his grip, the Jedi carried her as silently as he could to the nearest storage room, which apparently contained broken parts from some kind of engine, opening the door with a wave of his omni-tool.

Rassen silently thanked the Force as it slid open with barely a sound. The room was tiny, only measuring a couple of metres from wall to wall, though it was certainly large enough for his purposes, given it was empty aside from a few rectangular metal containers that stood as high as his knee. Grunting quietly, he entered the small space, the door closing of its own accord behind him, and lowered the woman to the ground.

The black visor that he knew matched his own stared up at him as he rose to his feet, seemingly gazing into his soul, though he knew it was simply just the part of the protective headgear that allowed its owner to see. Even so, he stared back at it, wondering if he and the same Mandalorian would cross paths again.

 _It would make much more sense to kill her._

The sound of Zaressh's voice caught him completely off-guard, causing Rassen to stumble much as he had only a few moments previously, eyes wide. The moment of shock was not lost on the voice, which laughed mockingly, louder in volume than it had ever been before.

 _You spared her once, and now she is here, helping the same people who wiped out that worthless colony. The same people that threatened your little alien lover. Tell me, Rassen, why spare her for a second time? She knows your face, but none of the other Mandalorians do. While she lives, you are in danger and Shaela is in danger. If you love her, why put her at risk?_

Rassen grunted as a ringing filled his ears, a spike of pain suddenly erupting in the centre of his forehead. "I will not kill her," he managed to force out, gasping as the pain suddenly became worse. "She did not harm anyone on Horizon."

 _And how do you know that? Wishful thinking, nothing more. For all you know, her inexperience is an act. Combined with her youth, many would naturally underestimate her. The whole of Mandalorian society revolves around competition, is it so far-fetched that some would present themselves as being weak to trick others?_ The voice paused as though taking a breath before continuing. _So we return to my previous point, is she worth putting the quarian at risk?_

A familiar clicking noise filled the small room. Rassen looked down in horror as his hand trained the blaster pistol that had previously been attached to his hip on the unconscious woman in front of him. He hadn't even noticed he had removed the weapon from his side.

 _Kill her. It is the safe thing to do._

The spike of pain in his head grew to the point his eyes began to water. His finger started tightening on the trigger. Any moment the pressure he was exerting on the small piece of metal would become too much to bear and the mechanism within the weapon would respond, sending a bolt of scarlet energy down into the prone figure at his feet. At this range her armour would provide no protection. Death would be instantaneous, but also virtually painless. The room would be bathed in the same colour as the shot for the briefest of moments and then it would be over. It would be justice for all of the innocent people who had died on Horizon, wouldn't it? For the turian and two children he had been unable to save. Wherever they were, they could rest more easily if he ended the life of one of those who had been responsible.

Swallowing heavily, he dropped the blaster.

 _Kill her!_

"No," Rassen muttered. "I will never end another's life if there is a better way." He knelt down and retrieved the weapon, making sure it was tightly secured at his hip and his hand was away from it before continuing. "I may not know what you are, whether you are a part of him or some part of me using his voice. I may have made mistakes getting back here, but I know who I am."

The pain in the centre of his forehead increased again, now so great that Rassen collapsed to his hands and knees, only able to avoiding screaming by gritting his teeth together with so much force he thought they might shatter. Zaressh's voice was no louder than before, though its intensity was somehow greater, the venom within it all he could hear as the room began spinning around him.

 _Then why have you not told the quarian what happened? How you failed that family? How you held that child as he—_

"Shut up."

 _You saw the look in his eyes when you first met? That was hero worship if ever I—_

A screeching noise caused Rassen to look up to see one of the containers near him slowly rending apart, the metal no match for the immense pressure being brought to bear upon it. Gasping, he tried to calm himself down, to cease crushing the object.

He blinked and suddenly felt his mind being pulled along, whatever it was in his head taking advantage of the distraction. He was now back on Horizon, Zaressh stumbling away from his kick, choking noises leaving the Sith's mask as he struggled to breath. The black-clad figure fell to the floor as he grew weaker and weaker, his movement eventually ceasing before he morphed into a Mandalorian wearing blue and white armour.

The memory ended as quickly as it had begun. The metal container had been utterly torn apart, shards of it littering the room. Through it all the Mandalorian had remained unconscious, totally unaware of what had just transpired.

Rassen's eyelids felt heavy. Even though he had rested before they set off, he felt his head slowly lowering to the floor almost of its own accord. "I am not like you," he muttered weakly.

A voice that could not have been more different to the Sith's responded, but it caused his heart to stop nonetheless.

"Rassen?" Shaela asked worriedly. "Who are you talking to?"


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: I said I would be quicker, didn't I? Sorry this took longer than a week, I find I keep having to go back to make sure I'm keeping various details from chapters I wrote months ago consistent. I nearly ended up saying Rassen had his lightsaber on his person at one point last chapter, when of course he didn't. :)**

 **Responses to reviews are as follows:**

 **AnarionRising27: As always, thank you for your support. So many mysteries, so little time. I'm glad the last chapter wasn't too disappointing after such a long wait and, like I said last time, it's great to be back!**

 **Harlequin-TheDerangedVigilante: You have that too? Join the club!**

 **Chapter 15: Convergence**

He stayed on all fours unmoving, the question running through his mind over and over again like an echo. The armour he wore felt even heavier than before, seeming to hold him in place as he thought about what to say. There was total silence save for the crackling of static that indicated the line between himself and Shaela was still open. He hadn't noticed its reappearance during the confrontation with the voice inside his head, hadn't realised Shaela had contacted him while he had been distracted.

Rassen didn't know how long he remained in that position. It could have been only a few moments. It could have been hours. All he knew was that as he slowly began to struggle to his feet he still had a job to do. He hadn't known Kasumi for long, but he trusted her. She would need his help to extract Commander Shepard, which meant he would provide it.

"Shaela," he eventually managed, "how do I get to where Kasumi is headed?"

"Who were you talking to?" she repeated, voice filled with concern. "Rassen, some of the things you said…"

"I know." He finally succeeded in rising fully, though the task seemed to sap most of the little strength he had. "I… We can talk about it later."

"Rassen—"

"Shaela, please." He staggered over to the door, though not before ensuring the Mandalorian was still unconscious. "How do I get to Shepard?"

"Rassen, what happened while we were separated?"

His hand froze a few inches from the haptic interface that controlled the door. "A lot." He swallowed slightly before opening it, the process as quiet as it had been earlier. "Now, which way do I go?"

There was a moment of silence, and he could sense the quarian's worry and frustration as she debated whether to tell him or keep pressing. Eventually, though, she replied, the sorrow in her voice cutting deeply.

"Go the way you were heading before. It's clear as far as I can see for the moment."

He stepped out of the room before closing the door behind him, looking both ways down the corridor just to be safe. Checking the blaster pistol was still secured to his hip, he started down the way that had been indicated. Shaela deserved the truth, he knew that. Right now was not the time, though. Once they were away from this place, then he could explain to her what had happened to him.

 _Or you could just avoid doing that like you did earlier. I imagine she was crying behind that mask when you walked off._

Trying to ignore Zaressh as best he could, Rassen kept walking.

* * *

Kasumi winced as the bulky weapon on her back shifted slightly, part of it digging into her spine despite its folded and therefore supposedly more manageable state. Reaching around to adjust its position, she continued on her way, other arm ready to activate her tactical cloak at a moment's notice. She hadn't needed to use it yet, but there was no chance she would let her guard down. Carelessness was one of the worst attributes to have in her profession.

She had told Shaela about part of what she had found only a few minutes ago, but she had left the armoury far behind in that time, the knowledge that Shepard was close driving her on. After all, after what he had done to the Bahak system, who knew what the batarians had in mind for him? She had to get him out as quickly as possible.

She suddenly came to a halt midway down a long corridor as poorly lit as seemingly everywhere else in the base. Just why was she so determined to save him? He had helped her with retrieving Keiji's graybox, obviously, and had often checked up on her during the mission against the Collectors. The latter had hardly been unique to her, though, since it had become a bit of a running joke among everyone on board that Shepard seemed to spend as much time talking to them as he did attending to all of his other duties combined. In truth, they had been a pretty tightly-knit group by the end of it all, and the thief could honestly say she considered all of the crew friends to some extent, though she had been closer to some than others.

There was little doubt in her mind that had anyone else been captured she still would have tried to help, would still have been willing to put herself at risk for them. Yet it wasn't in her nature to throw caution to the wind quite as much as she had. She had insisted as soon as Rassen had told her Shepard was being held that they go immediately, with very little time spent making plans or preparing. There was only one other time she could remember showing impulsiveness like that…

* * *

She kept a polite smile plastered to her face, even though every nerve in her body, every instinct screamed at her to lunge forwards, to tackle the well-dressed man in front of her to the ground. To hurt him as he stared up at her in fear, to make him pay for what he had done. Nothing she could do to him would be enough, she knew that. Still, as she stood next to the equally as well-dressed Commander Shepard, with a statue of one of his greatest enemies nearby, a thousand different ways to make the dark-haired man in the white suit beg for mercy ran through her mind.

She barely heard the exchange of words between the two men she was so focused on maintaining her façade, until, of course, the conversation moved to her.

"But I will ask your companion to remain outside," Hock stated firmly. "You understand, I hope."

This wasn't good. As much as she would be able to stick with Shepard via her tactical cloak, Kasumi felt uneasy. In her experience, when the smallest detail of a plan fell apart, the rest of it normally followed soon after.

"Care to explain why my friend has to stand outside?" Shepard's tone was polite, but it carried a small amount of steel. In spite of the situation, she was impressed. He was playing the part of a professional gangster perfectly; business-like and authoritative without doing anything to offend their host.

"I don't like the look of your 'friend,' so she stays outside. Simple as that." As Hock's eyes roved over her, Kasumi kept her smile in place, even as her heart dropped into her stomach. She could have sworn she had seen a spark of recognition there for just a moment, that Hock had placed her. Had he really, though, or had it been her imagination, a trick of the light perhaps? Her internal debate was cut short as Shepard replied.

"No problem," he said smoothly, defusing the situation with seemingly no effort. "You're the host."

"Enjoy the party." Hock was already turning away, his business with them for the moment concluded, or so he thought. Internally, Kasumi grinned. Their business was far from over, he would find that out soon enough. Her mirth died down as she remembered the look in his eyes. She walked a few steps away from where she had been standing as she analysed the situation from every perspective she could, sensing it when Shepard followed her.

"Well," she admitted as she turned to face him, "that didn't go as I expected."

"Any idea why he'd send you away?"

"No," she replied, shifting her weight from one foot to another as she spoke. "We've never seen each other in person. And no one knows what I look like." She shrugged, feeling a little more confident now she had voiced a few of the facts. "Just watching his ass, I'm sure. I can't blame him."

"Don't worry about it. I can handle it from here," Shepard smirked. The same damn smirk he had given her when they had first met, every detail identical down to the look in his eyes that promised despite his military mind-set, he still knew how to have fun. The same confused bundle of feelings it had caused the first time reappeared, but she couldn't worry about that now. They had more important things to contend with.

"That's good. Because you'll have to do all the talking." She shifted her weight again. "I'll stay out of sight and stick with you the best I can."

A couple of guards began moving the statue of Saren they had brought, causing her companion to glance over his shoulder at the sound as she began walking towards Hock's mansion. He joined her a moment later, the two of them ascending the steps before the door together. "We'll keep radio contact in case something goes wrong," she said, activating her tactical cloak before she had even finished talking and vanishing from view.

Shepard didn't reply. She could see from the look on his face that he was focusing himself entirely on the mission, his years of training and battlefield experience taking over. Even so, she knew he had heard her. As the doors of the mansion loomed larger and larger, despite how she felt herself sliding into her own business mind-set, her eyes moved almost entirely unbidden to a point just below the small of his back.

 _Huh. I wasn't wrong on the way over. He really should wear a suit more._

* * *

She shook her head furiously as she realised she had stopped walking while reminiscing. Now wasn't the time for remembering past adventures. She had a job to do, and she needed to focus on it if she wanted to be successful. The fact the job revolved around Shepard…

 _Job. Get on with it._

As she resumed her progress, though, she began to worry slightly. Shaela had cut their connection so she could tell Rassen about Shepard, but that had been a while ago now. While she had no doubt she could make her way to where he was being held without too much difficulty, the knowledge she no longer had the quarian for long range support was more discomforting than she would have liked to admit.

The sudden crackling of static caught her off-guard, though she gave no outward reaction. Slinking to the shadows of the corridor, Kasumi checked no one was nearby as Shaela's voice reached her.

"There's nobody in the next few hallways. You can move on."

She frowned at the other woman's tone. She sounded… well, to be honest she wasn't sure she could describe quite how she sounded. In her voice there were traces of so many emotions, none positive.

 _Damn it, Rassen. What the hell did you say to her?_

"Shaela," she asked gently, not wanting to undo the progress she had made with the quarian since infiltrating the base, "are you okay? Did something happen to Rassen?"

"I…" Shaela trailed off, and for a moment Kasumi could see her sitting alone in the cockpit of the ship, forced to watch events from a distance while the most important person in her life was putting himself in mortal danger. Putting himself in mortal danger to help her. Kasumi shook her head again. Guilt wasn't going to help them right now.

"He's going to meet you there," the quarian eventually replied, though her tone suggested she had wanted to say something else. "I need to go. I'm updating him using the cameras as well." The static vanished a second later, causing Kasumi to frown as she resumed her advance. Obviously Rassen hadn't been discovered or hurt. No, something else had happened to him and—much like earlier—he had refused to tell Shaela what it was.

As she moved from one corridor to the next, nothing about her surroundings changing aside from tiny variations in how bad the lighting was, Kasumi made a decision. Giving someone time was often a good course to take, but there was a limit. Whatever his reasons, Rassen's decision to keep whatever it was to himself was hurting Shaela, and it looked like it could hurt their ability to work together as well. The thief could accept that he didn't know her well enough to confide in her whatever had happened to him in the past, but if he didn't tell Shaela what it was once they were leaving Aratoht behind, she would have to talk to him herself.

* * *

"Take the next left. There are a few Mandalorians coming the other way, though, so don't do anything to draw attention to yourself."

"Understood." While he kept his voice calm, Rassen still felt himself wince at Shaela's instruction. The quarian was trying to focus entirely on her job, but he knew her well enough to detect the undercurrent of hurt that coloured her voice, even though she was doing a good job hiding it. As he had been warned, when he turned left Rassen saw a small group of Mandalorians heading his way. Continuing to walk at the same pace as before, he returned the nod the closest one gave him as they passed one another.

"Go right in about fifty metres," Shaela said, and he could almost see her scrolling through the different camera feeds, silver eyes intensely focused. "As far as I can tell, there's nothing ahead. You're about ten minutes away from his cell."

The word cell brought him up short. Although it only made sense that Shepard was being held in a secure location, with so much having happened over the last few days, it had never crossed Rassen's mind there could be others being held by the Mandalorians and batarians. "Is Shepard the only prisoner?" he asked, after having made sure the vocabulator in his helmet was still disabled. "Could there be others? The datapad we found back on Watchman did not mention any other captives."

"I can't tell," Shaela admitted, a hint of frustration present now. "If there are other cells, they don't have cameras in them, even though it would make sense for there to be, Commander Shepard's included."

"Should the fact you could design a more secure facility than our enemies worry me?"

"No," the quarian replied, his attempt to defuse the tension between them going completely over her head due to how occupied she was. Either that or more likely she had chosen to ignore it. "It will be the lack of resources that's responsible. What kind of idiot wouldn't make sure they could see what their prisoners get up to in private?"

"Unfortunately, I have no idea," the Jedi replied, wincing for a second time. Shaela's voice had grown louder and angrier during their conversation, and he didn't need the Force to sense it was entirely the result of him keeping secrets from her. His mind suddenly flashed back to Omega. They had barely known each other when he had gone searching for clues as to how he had ended up on the station. Shaela had confronted him on his return, telling him they needed to work together. She had been very quick to trust him, desperate for help so soon after the group of batarians had attacked her.

The irony that the second time he had arrived in this galaxy he found himself at odds with another group of batarians, albeit much larger than the first, was not lost on him.

Though he continued walking, Rassen was effectively running on auto-pilot as his mind then turned to when he had gone to confront Zaressh aboard the station. Shaela had wanted to come with him, despite the danger. Indeed, the only reason he was still alive was because she had managed to find him before the Sith could kill him. He might have had the best of intentions for going after Zaressh alone, but he had still failed to trust the woman who was even now looking out for him.

Years later, he was still making the same mistakes as before.

"I'm sorry."

Shaela's voice, which had just started to give him a new instruction, cut out mid-sentence. "I… What?" The quarian eventually managed, completely caught by surprise.

Checking to make sure he was still alone in the corridor, which was the worst lit one yet, Rassen gently leaned his back against one of its grimy walls as he explained. "Even back when we first met, you always wanted to help me." He shook his head slowly. "I should have told you everything as soon as you asked. You deserve to know."

"Rassen," Shaela's voice was soft now. "I—" The connection suddenly cut out much like it had earlier, causing him to lurch off the wall in alarm. A few moments later, however, it returned along with the quarian's voice. "You're going to have to move faster," she said. "Kasumi has almost reached Commander Shepard's cell."

Rassen nodded, grunting slightly in irritation as he realised she couldn't see it. "Agreed." Having reached the point that had been indicated a few moments previously, he went right, only to then halt as he found he had the choice to go either left or forwards a few metres later. "Where now?" he asked.

"Keep following the corridor straight on," Shaela replied gently. He muttered an affirmation before setting off again, walking faster than before, though he was careful not to look as though he were rushing. The longer they could avoid detection the better, after all. There was a moment of silence before Shaela spoke again, her words hesitant this time.

"There's, um, something I need to talk to you about as well once we've left this place. I just found something I wasn't expecting to on the ship, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it."

"What sort of thing?"

"A friend gave me a bag of supplies before I went looking for you, as well as a… as well as the ship I used." Her voice caught on the last part, and Rassen made a mental note to ask her about it later. "You'll see what I mean."

"Got it," Rassen said, noticing as he spoke that her had reached another choice of routes, this time with the option of either going left or right. The junctions were becoming much more frequent now, though he had no idea why. "Which way now?" he asked.

"Right. You're very close. I'll check on Kasumi quickly." The now familiar buzz of static vanished a second later as Shaela cut the line. Rassen turned in the direction indicated and continued, forcing himself to keep both his arms at his sides instead of reaching for the blaster on his hip. Now that he was close, the reality of them having to fight at some point was truly sinking in.

* * *

Pulse racing, she checked to make certain that the corridors to her left and right were empty. Once she was sure no one else was nearby, Kasumi took a deep breath to steady herself. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting during the time she had spent getting here, but somehow the moment didn't feel real. The door only a couple of metres away from her just looked so… ordinary. It had clearly seen better days, much like the rest of the facility, with pockmarks that were obviously the result of gunfire littering its surface, though it still looked solid. Unsurprising, given that any person with a brain wouldn't have put the cell's occupant behind one that wasn't.

Normally there would be guards outside a cell, especially considering if the person inside it were dangerous. However, the four batarians she had found guarding it had mysteriously received an urgent command from their immediate superior, who was conveniently located on the other side of the base. By the time they realised something was up, it would be too late.

There was no latch or window of any kind, the door's only distinguishing feature aside from the places it had been struck with gunfire being the thin layer of rust that covered it in patches. Almost unbidden, Kasumi raised a hand to touch one of the areas, the movement of her gloved fingertips sliding over the surface producing an almost inaudible scraping noise.

 _This is real. Shepard is right on the other side of this door._ As she continued to trace a hand over the final barrier between her and the man the entire galaxy owed a debt it could never repay, a blast of static brought her out of her thoughts.

"Kasumi, it's Shaela. Are you there yet?"

"Yes," she whispered, voice almost inaudible. "Yes," she repeated, louder this time so the quarian could hear her.

"Good. Rassen is almost there."

Kasumi muttered that she understood as her eyes remained focused on the door. Her gaze then moved to the haptic interface beside it, the softly glowing orange light seeming to beckon to her, telling her to press her hand against its surface. Once she did it would open the door, freeing Shepard and allowing him to escape with them.

Or rather that was what it would have done if it hadn't been alarmed.

She had to give the batarians—she assumed it was them, since she recognised the set up—credit. What she was looking at was an only recently outdated alarm system, which would trigger as soon as someone not permitted access attempted to interact with the interface. The basic concept of handprint recognition was ancient, though still effective against most interlopers. No, what was much more impressive was the other layer of security.

Examining the interface carefully, Kasumi could see it consisted of a series of codes that changed automatically after a set period of time. Get one wrong and an alert would go off through what she guessed would be the entire base. Again, the basic concept was ancient. However, what wasn't was just how they needed to be entered.

It had to be done by omni-tool.

There was no keyboard as there had been with the armoury terminal. Hacking passwords took time, provided of course you didn't have a good program to do the job for you, but even so, that method of securing something could be bypassed by anyone with enough patience. She was willing to bet every credit she had ever 'acquired' that the only two reasons it had actually been employed in the armoury were because no one expected an intruder would get that far, given how well the base's location had been chosen, and because of the lack of resources.

The benefit of requiring an omni-tool to enter a series of security codes was that you could set up the system to only allow specific models to interact with it without setting off the alarm. Without having one of the kinds of omni-tool specifically allowed access, there was no way to avoid getting caught. Aside from, of course, if you happened to be able to mimic another kind of model to the one you owned.

The sound of footsteps caused Kasumi to stop her analysis of what she had to deal with, her tactical cloak activating a moment later. A Mandalorian appeared at the end of the corridor to her left, the lone figure marching towards her position at a quick though not unduly hurried pace. One of the corners of her mouth tugged upwards as she allowed him to walk right past her, only for her expression to transform into a frown as he turned around, visor staring straight at her position.

"We should not waste any time, Kasumi. I had to incapacitate one of them to get here. As soon as they are discovered an alert will be sent out."

She deactivated her tactical cloak, allowing herself to pout at being so easily found. "I know," she replied. She looked back at the interface next to the door. Satisfied she hadn't missed anything and confident she had just the programs for the job, the thief approached it, omni-tool bursting to life as she got to work.

"How long will this take?"

She didn't look in his direction as she responded. "A minute or so maybe? Things like this don't have a set duration, Ras. All I can say is not long." Activating the program that allowed her omni-tool to mimic another model, she chose a low-grade batarian one. With the kind of resources the base's occupants had at their disposal, there was no way they would be able to afford anything better. The process completed in seconds, and she began establishing a connection between the device and the interface.

 _Fortunately, even only recently outdated is child's play for me._

Sensing Rassen was watching her, she glanced over her shoulder. "Can you keep a lookout?" she asked. "If something is about to go wrong, I need to notice it before it happens or we're going to have a whole world of problems." Seeing his nod, she turned back to what she was doing, activating a second program, this one being the best you could find for working out and transmitting unknown security codes. "Oh, and try to stand a bit more like they do," she muttered.

"What do you mean?"

"You know, more imposing and less madly in love with a quarian."

"And how exactly would I do that?" She smirked at the slight irritation in Rassen's voice. Though he had done a good job, he hadn't quite been able to disguise it fully.

"Stand up straight," she shrugged, feeling her excitement growing as the program made short work of the final few barriers between them and access to the door. "Think imposing thoughts."

Rassen didn't respond, though she could practically hear him rolling his eyes. Shaking her head slightly as she focused back on her task, Kasumi felt her heart beat faster as the final code was bypassed. The interface flared slightly as she activated a third program, tricking the system yet again as she pressed a hand flat onto it, the fact she wore gloves making no difference, thanks to her software. The glow faded a moment later, though the door remained closed. Swallowing nervously, she turned to face Rassen, only to notice in surprise that he was looking at her again.

"We probably have even less time than we think," he murmured softly. "Take a moment if you need to, but you must be quick. I will continue to watch for any patrols."

Nodding shakily, the thief removed her hand from the interface, the door sliding open with a screech of metal on metal. Wincing at how loud it was, Kasumi stepped inside the room.

It was dark, though that was unsurprising. The only illumination came from the now open doorway, and much of that was blocked by her own body. Even so, she could make out that the cell was tiny, measuring barely more than two or so metres in diameter. A figure sat with their back leaning against the far wall, head bowed as they slept. Kasumi's lips were dry as she spoke softly, her voice barely audible.

"Shepard?"

The figure's head slowly lifted, revealing his face. His black hair was cropped short, not much longer than the stubble that covered his jaw and the area around his mouth. His strong features were exactly the same as she remembered, down to the thin scar on the left side of his head where no hair grew. His blue eyes stared as her in suspicion for a moment before widening in recognition. His voice was as quiet as hers when he finally answered her, the brief interval between their questions seeming to last for an eternity before he broke the silence.

"Kasumi?"


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: So, now things are hopefully about to get** _ **really**_ **interesting. Sorry that I'm still not at a chapter a week. Life keeps producing unexpected (though not bad) surprises. I've just spent an unhealthy amount of time over the past few days replaying KotOR 2 with both the Restored Content Mod and the M4-78 mod, so it's been a challenge pulling myself away from that to do anything else.**

 **Responses to reviews are as follows:**

 **AnarionRising27: Hey, it's my pleasure. Glad you liked it. :D**

 **seabo76: Thanks. We'll have to wait and see about that... I'm not saying anything. :)**

 **Chapter 16: Reunited**

She knew what she wanted to say. Given the current situation, it was exactly the same as anyone would have wanted to. Indeed, anyone who found someone they cared about in the hold of their enemies would naturally want to make sure whoever they had come to rescue hadn't been harmed. If she had been looking at anyone other from Shepard, Kasumi would have been able to ask them whether they were hurt as easily as breathing, there being no difficulty whatsoever.

As she stared at him and opened her mouth, throat dry, no sound came out. He stared back at her, eyes betraying that he felt the sudden awkwardness between them as acutely as she did. She closed her mouth, clearing her throat nosily before managing to finally speak, though the single word she uttered came out more like a croak.

"Hi."

Internally she winced as he raised an eyebrow in response before replying, his voice coloured with amusement as he spoke.

"Hi."

The awkwardness didn't dissipate. If anything, it seemed to grow even stronger as the two of them remained where they were. Her still standing, him still sitting with his back propped up against the wall. Kasumi took a moment to scan him quickly for any injuries. Relieved when she saw nothing was wrong, not that she could see brilliantly in the poorly illuminated room, she opened her mouth again, only for Shepard to speak first as he noticed her examination.

"I'm okay," he grunted, beginning to get to his feet. "The batarians and the others whoever they are haven't done anything to me I don't think." She frowned as he struggled to rise, moving over to his side and slinging one of his arms over her shoulders. She winced again, though this time externally. Shepard might have been a couple of inches shorter than Rassen by her estimation, but he was better built, clearly placing a greater focus on strength than the Jedi, though she knew he could be staggeringly fast when he wanted to be. She had certainly seen him in action enough times.

"Stop arguing," she grunted, drawing a glare from him as she interrupted the complaints that had just begun. "You're clearly not at one-hundred per cent, Shep. So don't try to act like you are."

"I know," he replied, coughing slightly as she helped him to the exit. "I wasn't trying to. I'm just worried about you, though."

"What?"

"You're not exactly big, Kasumi," he joked. "To be honest, I'm surprised you're able to help hold me up."

"Well I am." She couldn't prevent the strain in her voice from making itself known. As much as the N7's words had been supposed to be funny, the truth was that Shepard was much larger than she was, and was also leaning on her more than she had expected he would. Being stuck in a cell tended to cause your strength to deteriorate pretty quickly, it was true, but it felt as though Shepard was too weak to support most of his weight, meaning her shoulders were already burning, even though he thankfully was wearing only a simple grey jumpsuit and not the armour she had come to associate with him. Combined with the guns she carried, Kasumi was barely able to get him to the door, beginning to feel faint as they reached it. Clearly her blood loss on Watchman was still an issue.

Suddenly, she found herself staggering backwards as Shepard threw her arm off and shoved her away. Kasumi gasped as she was sent tumbling into the cell to crash back first into its far wall, all air leaving her lungs from the impact. She looked up to see Shepard levelling the assault rifle that had just been attached to her hip at a point just out of sight and flicking the safety off, the weapon having unfolded in the brief period since he had thrown her back. She tried to shout at him to stop, but she was having trouble breathing. Despite that, she knew what was happening.

As she began to rise so she could stop him, there was a slight clicking noise, which caused Shepard to glance down towards the weapon he held in momentary shock before the rifle was wrenched from his hands and out of sight. Kasumi reached the doorway just in time to see Rassen holding it, though he kept its barrel pointed away from the man they had come to rescue.

"I am with Kasumi," the Jedi stated, for the most part sounding calm, but she could still detect a trace of alarm in his voice. Unsurprising, considering while he only knew a little about Shepard, she and Shaela had told him enough for him to understand the commander was a phenomenal soldier. "We came to rescue you."

Still gasping as she tried to get enough air into her lungs, Kasumi nodded quickly as Shepard turned to her for confirmation. "Yeah…" she managed. "He's… he's with me. Should have… mentioned that… huh?"

There was suddenly a slight pressure on each of her shoulders as Shepard placed his hands on them and gently began to examine her. "Are you all right?" he asked, all of his military experience still unable to prevent him from hiding the worry he felt. She instantly knew why he was concerned. He had always cared about those he had fought with, often at his own expense by helping them with whatever problems they had.

"I'm… I'm fine," she coughed, breathing beginning to return to normal. "You didn't know. Next time you push me out of the way, though… try to be a bit gentler." She smiled up at him, trying to put him a little more at ease. It worked, Shepard nodding slowly in response before allowing himself to smile in return.

"You're a sight for sore eyes, Kasumi," he admitted.

"Aren't I always?"

"We do not have time for this."

Both of them turned to face Rassen, who held out the rifle to Shepard, visor meeting the commander's eyes. "It is only a matter of time until we are discovered," he explained. "There is only one other person with us, we need to get moving so we can avoid as much fighting as possible."

She watched as Shepard nodded in reply, taking the weapon before flipping the safety back off. "How did you do that?" he asked. "You didn't touch it, and you clearly didn't use biotics."

Rassen shook his head. "We can explain everything to you once we are back on our ship and away from this place. We need to go now, though."

Kasumi nodded, allowing Shepard's hands to leave her shoulders as she moved to take point. "Rassen, can you help him along?" she asked. "I'm a woman of many talents, but apparently heavy lifting isn't one of them."

"Can I have my lightsaber back?"

"Of course." She turned away for a moment before tossing the black and silver cylinder to him, causing Rassen to stare at her in surprise as he tried to work out where she had been hiding it. "One glow stick, as ordered. You two play nicely, I'm going to contact our resident camera specialist."

* * *

A crackle of static caused Shaela to jolt upright, the familiar sound almost causing her to drop the object she had been examining. Gently placing the syringe back in the bag, she returned her attention to the camera feeds still being displayed by her omni-tool. She had only taken her eyes off them for a moment, having felt she had to make sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that she hadn't misread what was written on the side of the syringe earlier. While she had plenty on her mind, the substance contained within the simple vessel kept returning to her thoughts. She knew what it was, but that did not take away from the fact it made her feel extremely nervous she had it in her possession.

Kasumi's voice then reached her, the thief enquiring as to whether anyone was approaching her and Rassen's current position. Needing only a brief moment to examine the different feeds, Shaela noticed to her relief that nothing had changed in the few seconds she had taken to inspect the syringe. There were certainly groups of Mandalorians and batarians moving about, but there were none in the vicinity.

"You're clear at the moment, I think," she said slowly, silver eyes moving from side to side as she continued to watch for any immediate threats. "Most activity seems to be near the hanger, so there are quite a few corridors between you and the nearest patrol."

"Good." Kasumi's satisfaction was obvious, despite the less than ideal quality of the connection. "We have Shepard and have just started making our way back. They haven't hurt him, thank God, but he's weak. Rassen is helping him walk."

Shaela ignored as best she could the revelation that the man who had done more than any other person to save everybody from the Reapers was on his way to her current location. They had known in advance they would try to break him out if he had indeed been a captive, but the fact she would soon meet him hadn't truly dawned on her until now, given how distracted she had been with, well, everything. "That's good," she replied. "Is Rassen okay?"

"He's fine." Shaela frowned as she noticed Kasumi sounded slightly apprehensive, as though she were not sure what to say. "Shep nearly shot him, but he's got his lightsaber back, so he's probably not too annoyed."

"What do you mean he—" She was interrupted by Kasumi's reply, the other woman elaborating quickly.

"Shepard saw him and thought he was a Mandalorian, you know, because of the armour. Both of them are fine, though. No one got hurt."

"I—" Shaela was interrupted for a second time, though this time not by the woman on the other end of the line. She had been examining the camera feed in the bottom left-hand corner of her omni-tool display, but a flash of movement out the corner of her eye caused her heart to stop in her chest. A moment later she saw what had caused it.

Three Mandalorians were heading directly for the group, which was currently only two corridors away from them. Even with their pace being slowed by Shepard, she could see the three of them would be face to face with the three armoured warriors in less than a minute. How she hadn't noticed how close they were she didn't know, though she suspected the fact not all of the base's cameras were working hadn't helped.

"Three Mandalorians are heading straight for you," she reported, it now being her turn to cut off Kasumi, who had started to ask what was wrong. "I can't see any others nearby, but they're very close."

She heard Kasumi mutter a curse, though it was so quiet her omni-tool was unable to pick it up well enough over the ever-present static to translate it. "Got it," the thief stated firmly. "I'll try to create a distraction and lead them away."

Shaela shook her head as she replied. "No. This might just be a regular patrol. If you do that then they might sound an alert. You're going to have to quietly take them out." She swallowed. Even though Rassen could look after himself, she still hated knowing he would be in danger while she was stuck on the ship. Not for the first time since they had come up with their plan, she cursed the fact there was no way she could fit inside a suit of Mandalorian armour on account of her different leg structure.

"Understood." Kasumi was deadly serious now, no trace of her often light-hearted nature on display. "I'll tell the others. Keep watching for any other groups."

"I will. There don't seem to be any more of them nearby, but you're going to have to do it now in case that changes." As she heard Kasumi explain the situation to the two men with her, Shaela again made sure her pistol was ready and nearby. She had a horrible suspicion she would need to use it shortly.

* * *

Rassen found himself having to make a conscious effort to walk in a straight line as he helped the man next to him along through the dimly lit corridor. Shepard would have been difficult enough to assist had he been unarmoured or even wearing his normal gear, but the heavy pieces of Mandalorian armour, while providing excellent protection, contributed to making progress much slower than he would have liked. As he had done when they had set off only moments ago, he glanced over at the man's face.

Shepard's strong features were set, a look of determination in his eyes as they walked. The rifle he had returned to the commander was held in a firm grip, the weapon appearing to be rather old, though well-maintained. Rassen wasn't sure of the model, aside from the fact it was not an Avenger, given how long he had spent outside this galaxy trying to find a way back. At first glance then, the man leaning on him certainly looked the part of a renowned war hero.

Upon closer inspection, though, there were indicators that he was far from his best. Obviously there was his inability to walk without help, but there were others too. A slight sheen of sweat had already broken out across the dark-haired man's forehead, the exertion of them having travelled only a short distance clearly taking a considerable toll. While his fingers held the grip of the rifle tightly, the rest of his arm trembled, the limb clearly unused to carrying any real weight for any period of time. Shepard's eyes were narrowed almost imperceptibly, indicating he was in considerable pain as they slowly made their way to the hanger.

"Are you well, commander?" he asked, causing the other man's eyes to move from where they had been looking ahead to meet his own. "Are you hurt in any way?"

"No," Shepard replied, shaking his head slightly before grunting as he stumbled, prompting Rassen to take more of his weight before continuing. "I don't know why I'm so… so feeble. I don't think I was tortured, though that might be because there was too little time for Balak to do anything to me."

"Balak?" The name didn't mean anything to Rassen, but he instantly gathered whoever it belonged to was important.

"When I woke up, I was in this container, this tube," Shepard tried to explain. Rassen noticed he was wincing now as they kept going. "It was full of liquid that drained out and then there he was." Seeing his confusion, the commander continued. "Balak is an old friend, well, enemy. He didn't tell me anything and had me dragged away. I passed out and woke up in that cell. I don't know how long ago that was, but they only gave me food and water a few times before you and Kasumi turned up."

"That tube was a kolto tank," Rassen nodded. "Kolto has excellent healing properties, but as an individual can be submerged for days or more, it can leave one feeling very weak, even if they are completely healed."

He turned his gaze back in front, eyes meeting Kasumi's for the briefest of moments before she turned her own gaze back ahead. Her pace suddenly faltered slightly before resuming, but before he could ask her what had happened, the man next to him spoke, drawing his attention back to him.

"I've never heard of kolto."

"That does not surprise me," Rassen said, adjusting the arm over his shoulders slightly. "It probably does not exist for anybody in this galaxy aside from the Mandalorians." As Shepard opened his mouth to ask what he meant, he spoke first. "The Mandalorians are the group working with the batarians. If you are about to ask what I mean by 'this galaxy'… well, it is a long story that can wait."

"Okay," Shepard nodded slowly, though Rassen could tell his curiosity had been very much piqued. "How far is it to the ship you mentioned?"

"Not too far," the Jedi replied. "We are not exactly making great progress, but it should not take us too long to get there."

Naturally, that was when he noticed Kasumi was walking back to them, a look of worry on her features.

"Three Mandalorians are heading this way," she said quickly. "Shaela thinks it might just be a routine patrol. We need to take them out without making any noise."

"Understood." Rassen felt Shepard's limbs tense as their owner prepared himself for the incoming confrontation.

"No deal, Shep," Kasumi replied firmly. "Ras and I can handle this one."

"Kasumi, I can still—"

"John."

Shepard suddenly went completely still, only his quiet pants of effort meaning Rassen could tell he was even breathing. Frowning beneath his helmet, he glanced between the man he was supporting and the woman opposite them. He did not have long to ponder the significance of what Kasumi has just called him before the thief spoke again, stepping closer to the man she had been addressing, so close, in fact, barely a foot separated them.

"Please let us handle it," Kasumi whispered softly. Rassen felt Shepard adjust his position slightly, clearly about to argue, only for Kasumi to speak before he could. "I'll be fine, Shep."

"I…" Rassen looked away from the conversation, feeling as though he were intruding. He could not, however, give the two of them space, given he was the only thing keeping one of the speakers on their feet. "Okay," Shepard finally relented, though he was clearly unhappy about it. "Just be careful."

"Always am," Kasumi chirped, the vulnerability she had just displayed transforming into satisfaction. Rassen turned his head back as he heard her cough. "You can, uh, lean him against the wall, big guy," she muttered, causing him to smirk slightly as he noticed her cheeks had coloured slightly once she realised he had heard everything.

"Very well." Rassen kept the amusement out of his voice as he helped the man he was supporting over to the nearest wall, ensuring Shepard had propped himself against it at a decent angle before turning back to the thief. "Do you have a plan for how we can take them out quietly?"

Kasumi's expression changed from one of concern to mischievousness as she turned her gaze from Shepard to him, causing Rassen to raise an eyebrow, not that she could see it. "Yep," she replied happily. "Here's what we're going to do."

* * *

The sound of heavy boots against the metal flooring of the adjoining corridor told Rassen the patrol would be in sight at any moment. Ensuring the blaster pistol he held was ready, though he hoped he wouldn't need to use it, he kept its barrel directly pointed at the man leaning against the wall, who had placed both of his hands on top of his head. The Jedi also ensured he was standing sideways on to the direction the three Mandalorians would be approaching from, meaning the left side of his body, where he had attached his lightsaber, was concealed from view.

"Any second now," he muttered, drawing a single nod from Shepard as the latter remained in position, doing his best to play the part of someone who had been so close to freedom they could taste it, only to be caught at the final hurdle. Rassen carefully glanced around, noting in approval that Kasumi was nowhere to be seen. She was very close, though, of that he had no doubt.

The patrol emerged from around a corner about twenty metres away, the three men pausing at the sight in front of them before marching towards it. The man in the centre, though he was virtually indistinguishable from his comrades, signalled for the other two to raise their blaster rifles, though he kept his own held so the barrel faced away as they drew nearer. He spoke once they were ten metres away from Rassen and Shepard, his voice filled with suspicion.

"What the hell is going on here?" he demanded. "What are you doing with the prisoner?"

Rassen gave away no signs of unease as he replied. "I found him sneaking this way," he said calmly. "No idea how he got free, damn batarians clearly can't guard one unarmed captive properly."

The ruse apparently worked for the moment as the leader nodded once. "I told Mandalore we should have had custody," he grunted. "It doesn't matter what Balak wants him for, the damn four eyes have no discipline. Part of me guessed this would happen." Rassen felt the atmosphere shift slightly as he looked around before returning his eyes to the Jedi. "Why didn't you sound the alarm?"

One of the other Mandalorians adjusted their grip on their weapon, but Rassen ignored it. "I only just caught him, sir. I was about to but then I heard your patrol approaching. Should I sound the alert now?"

"No, I'll do it." There was a sudden flicker of movement from behind one of the other two Mandalorians, though none of the three noticed, so intently were they focused on him and Shepard. Rassen muttered an affirmative as the leader turned to his men just as one of their heads snapped to the side accompanied by the sound of an electronic distortion combined with a heavy impact. As the first Mandalorian fell to the floor unconscious, the flicker of movement vanished, only to reappear behind the second, who received the same treatment before he had even managed to turn his head in the direction of the disturbance.

With the leader's back now to him, Rassen lunged forwards, wrapping one of his arms around the Mandalorian's neck, bracing it with the other. As the man realised what was happening and started to fight back, he stepped backwards, pulling the Mandalorian off-balance and making it much harder for him to escape the hold. With his neck being much more poorly armoured than the rest of him, the Mandalorian's struggles quickly grew weaker and weaker as Rassen began to slowly lower him to the ground, not releasing his grip until his struggles had stopped.

He looked up as Kasumi passed the assault rifle she had taken for the duration of the confrontation back to Shepard, only to see the commander looking at him in surprise. "Not bad," the bulkier man shrugged. "Where did you train to learn that?"

Rassen straightened up as Kasumi turned to face him as well, a look of interest on her face. "I learned that from… from first-hand experience a couple of years ago," he admitted. Sensing Shepard was about to ask for more information, he pressed on before he could. "Like I said earlier, we can discuss it once we are away from this place."

"Fair enough." Shepard turned to Kasumi. "Is there anywhere we could hide the bodies?"

The thief shook her head. "We need to keep moving. Bringing them with us would just slow us down, and we could run into another patrol before we found a good spot."

"Agreed." Rassen walked over to Shepard before pulling his arm over his shoulders and gently lifting the other man off of the wall. "We need to get to the hanger as soon as possible." He frowned beneath his helmet as he noticed a rather serious problem with their plan. "It was full of batarians when we arrived, though. How are we going to get past them?"

Kasumi tutted slightly, causing him to glare at her, though if she saw it she paid it no mind. "Took you long enough to figure that out, Ras. I'm way ahead of you." She raised a hand for quiet as she contacted the fourth member of their group. "Shaela?" she asked. "Where's the nearest console to the hanger?" Rassen frowned again as he watched her nod while humming quietly. "No, that's perfect." She turned her attention back to him. "Don't worry about the hanger, Ras. I've got something special to deal with that problem. Let's worry about getting there first, okay?"

"Don't argue with her." Rassen noticed Shepard grinning as he turned his attention back to him. "She knows what she's doing."

He held his free hand up in surrender. "Fine. This brings us back to where we just were, though, so we still need to keep going." At the nods he received from the other two, the three of them resumed their slow progress, him continuing to assist Shepard while Kasumi walked in front of them and continued to talk with Shaela about whether anyone else was coming their way.

* * *

Rassen silently thanked the Force as they finally reached the last corridor between them and the hanger. Despite the encounter near the start of their withdrawal, Shaela had managed to give them enough warning for them to avoid any other patrols, Kasumi scouting ahead enough to locate side rooms for them to hide in. Whenever a group of either Mandalorians or batarians had headed their way, he had helped Shepard to one of the rooms, the two of them emerging once the patrol had passed.

As he prepared to help the commander, who looked ready to drop, down the last twenty or so metres to the hanger, Kasumi suddenly turned to face the two of them before pointing to another of the seemingly ever-present side rooms.

"Both of you stay in there for a few minutes. There's a terminal nearby."

Remembering her earlier words about clearing the hanger, Rassen nodded tiredly, a motion he felt Shepard repeat, since the other man staggered forwards while doing it, nearly causing them both to collapse to the floor. Righting him with difficulty, Rassen waved a hand at Kasumi's concerned expression.

"I can still get him the rest of the way," he muttered, the exhaustion in his voice obvious even to him. "Do what you need to do and get back here as soon as you can."

"Will do," Kasumi replied, vanishing seemingly into thin air a moment later. At Shepard's nod, Rassen helped him several metres to the door the thief had indicated before opening it, which revealed a storage room much like the one he had hidden the Mandalorian from Horizon in earlier. Staggering under the other man's weight as they entered, Rassen gently lowered him so he could sit on a metal crate before closing the door behind them, checking quickly to make sure he hadn't dropped either his lightsaber or blaster pistol during their journey. Noting in relief both were exactly where they had left them, he turned to face Shepard.

"What exactly is that?"

"I'm sorry?" he frowned in confusion at the question, understanding only dawning when Shepard pointed at the cylinder attached to his hip. "Oh, that. My lightsaber."

"Never heard of it before," Shepard began scratching at his stubble in thought. "What is it exactly? Some kind of weapon?"

Rassen was about to ask why he was so interested, only to quickly step towards the other man and steady him as he rocked forwards, nearly falling off his seat to land on the ground. As he checked to see what was wrong, he began to understand why Shepard had asked now rather than doing so earlier. With the two of them unable to do much until Kasumi returned, his adrenalin level was dropping, his body determined to try and rest. Rassen could feel the same happening to himself, eyes drooping slightly as his own fatigue threatened to overwhelm him. Shepard was trying to distract himself from his exhaustion, trying to focus on something else lest his body give out completely.

Realising what was happening, Rassen drew the silver and black object from his side before holding it out for inspection. "In a sense," he admitted. "It is not exactly what you would probably think of first when you talk about weapons, but it definitely can be used as such. It is much more important, though, for what it represents."

"And what does it represent?"

"Anything depending on who you are," he explained, noticing how Shepard's features shifted into a look of confusion at the vagueness of his response and elaborating. "For many it represents hope. For many others, however, it represents cruelty."

Shepard chuckled. "And I expect that if I ask where it is exactly you got it from, you'll just tell me to wait until later?"

Rassen chuckled himself. "Exactly."

There was a moment of silence before Shepard spoke again, his voice more serious than before. "Thank you," he said honestly. "We've never met, but you're here helping me. When this is over I'm going to owe you one."

Rassen shook his head. "Kasumi asked me to."

"I know." A slight shudder went down his spine at the intensity in Shepard's eyes as they stared into his visor. No, not into it. _Through_ it. "I still owe you a lot. The other one of you as well."

"I…" Rassen really didn't know what to say. "You are welcome, commander."

Shepard grinned slightly. "I still want to know who you are. You have me at a serious disadvantage."

"Not as much of one as you might think."

The door suddenly opened, causing him to turn, lightsaber ready to ignite. Shepard lurched off the crate, assault rifle at the ready. The two of them relaxed instantly as a petite figure flickered into view, a smile on her features.

"Good to see you boys getting along. We should go. The hanger is clear now."

Rassen stared at Kasumi in shock. "Just like that?" he managed. "We did not hear any of them go past us."

The thief scoffed. "I was hardly going to send any of them the same way we're trying to get in from. An alert conveniently went off on the other of the base to where we are, Ras. Highest level of alarm they had, they probably think a turian fleet just arrived in the system."

"You can do that?" Rassen had to admit he was extremely impressed. Kasumi had already proven how good she was on multiple occasions, but it seemed he had still underestimated her, despite his best efforts not to.

"Why do you think there were no guards just outside where they were keeping Shep?"

"Good point," he nodded once before moving back over to Shepard and slinging one of the man's arms over his shoulders. "Are you sure the hanger is empty?"

Kasumi nodded. "Yes, I made sure to scope it out before coming back. I would have issued the alert sooner to draw them away, but that ran the risk of someone realising everyone was on one side of this rock before we were out of here. This way by the time they do figure out it was a diversion, we'll be long gone." She looked at Shepard worriedly. "Are you still with us, Shep?"

"Just about." Shepard's face was drenched with sweat, his eyes barely open by this point. "I can make it."

"Okay." Kasumi opened the door before stepping out of it. "Let's go."

Rassen staggered after her as the thief set off, ignoring how his muscles protested as he found himself nearly carrying Shepard rather than just supporting him. They were only back in the corridor for a moment before they entered the hanger, which was exactly the same as they had left it, bar of course the lack of batarians. The three of them made their way towards the ship, which loomed larger and larger as they drew nearer. The loading ramp began to lower as they finally reached it, Shaela clearly having noticed them through the security feeds.

Shepard now barely more than a dead weight, Rassen felt the pressure on his shoulders ease noticeably as Kasumi lifted the commander's other arm, the one holding the rifle, over her own shoulders, the two of them together moving him towards the foot of the ramp. They then began to carry him up the incline, the effort seeming to take all of the strength Rassen had left.

A familiar noise suddenly sounded behind them, a bolt of scarlet energy flying past his head to crash into the ramp. Instinct kicking in, he twisted out from underneath Shepard, lightsaber igniting as he positioned himself between the commander and the person responsible for the shot. He heard Kasumi's pants of effort as she tried to get the commander the rest of the way up the ramp on her own, though they barely registered.

Filing into the hanger were dozens of Mandalorians, their blasters all aimed directly at the three of them. As he watched, they assumed firing positions, supporting one another with an efficiency only possible as a result of constant drilling and battlefield experience. A single figure detached itself from the others, moving to stand in front of their soldiers triumphantly as her visor stared directly into his own.

"A good try, Jedi, but not quite good enough, I'm afraid."


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: Apologies for how long this took to get out. I've been a bit unwell (I'm better now) and so that resulted in this chapter taking longer than normal. On top of that, this proved a very difficult one to write, with lots of different elements that needed to be balanced.**

 **I've had to go back and correct an issue with chapter 12. Basically, I failed to mention (entirely my fault) how Rassen, Shaela, and Kasumi got to the Bahak system, since the relay there was blown up in Arrival. I've sorted that so the relay was repaired by the batarians, much like how we see them being fixed in the Extended Cut as shown by choosing the destroy ending. Sorry for not making that clear earlier, but it's fixed now.**

 **I've started the first of those one-shots I mentioned. I might actually turn it into a full story, but that will only be after** _ **Spectre**_ **has been completed. That won't be for a while, as it's currently almost as long as the first one, and I can say honestly it's probably going to be closer to 150,000 words than 100,000 like the original. All the same, I'll keep chugging along and get it finished.**

 **Responses to reviews are as follows:**

 **AnarionRising27: Nope, but then Shepard went through so much in the games and managed to overcome it. I'm glad you like the basic premise of these stories; I've received some criticism from people who were hoping for a more conventional crossover (the races of Mass Effect together against the Sith Empire). I tried to do something a bit different, so it's great to know people enjoy it.**

 **I'm really sorry to hear about what happened at work. I hope you get well soon.**

 **Chapter 17: Stand-Off**

As his eyes moved between the dozens of Mandalorians, Rassen was suddenly aware there was silence behind him. He didn't have to turn to know Kasumi had been as caught by surprise as he had and had stopped moving Shepard as a result. The world around him seemed to slow to a halt for a moment, though he still moved normally. His breathing was at its usual speed, the slight shifts in his posture that came with standing while exhausted likewise unaffected by whatever spell had gripped the base around him.

Despite the complete normality of the speed at which his body moved, however, his mind raced as he desperately tried to work out what to do. There was no way he could help Kasumi get the commander up the ramp before they would be fired upon. Even though the Mandalorians all wielded blasters and not mass accelerator weapons, there was no chance he would be able to deflect the fire of so many of them, especially with two others to protect.

What was the alternative to attempting to flee, though? Fight? One Mandalorian was dangerous. Several could prove fatal to even a Force user, as he could attest from personal experience on Horizon. Shepard had very nearly killed him when they had first come face to face, but even if he had been in fighting condition, the three of them together would still die in seconds against so many.

 _Shaela._

She was currently still inside the ship and safe for the moment. If they put down their arms, the Mandalorians would no doubt search it and find her. For a split-second Rassen was tempted to contact her and tell her to take off. That would leave him to face the Mandalorians and whatever they had in mind for him, but she would escape. The hanger didn't look as though it had been sealed in any way as of yet.

Rassen let out a low snarl of frustration. Shepard and Kasumi would be left with him if he were somehow able to convince Shaela to leave, which he doubted he could have done even if it was to get help. That settled it, then. They couldn't fight. Surrendering would mean they would face imprisonment and possibly even torture, given Mandalorians were not above using it to his knowledge. That only left one option.

Stall until they could find some way to escape.

Feeling a small amount of comfort from the constant hum of his lightsaber as he did so, Rassen stepped off the bottom of the ramp, locking eyes with the Mandalorian who had spoken. Though she appeared no different from the others, he didn't have to do much thinking to work out she was the one the young Mandalorian from earlier had referred to as Mandalore. Seeing her tilt her head at his response to her words, he allowed himself to feel a small amount of relief at the fact she hadn't ordered her soldiers to fire.

"You must be the one claiming to be Mandalore," he said calmly, ensuring he made no sudden movements. "I will admit to being a little confused. I was under the impression the current holder of that title was male."

There was an almost imperceptible ripple through the ranks of men and women currently aiming their weapons in his direction. They gave no serious outwards reaction to his words, but Rassen sensed the spike of anger each of them felt as he spoke. Treading carefully but needing to know as much as he could about his enemy, he continued.

"You are a long way from home. Further than anyone back there could imagine. Why did you come all this way? What could possibly have drawn you here?"

The woman he was addressing took a step closer, mirroring his own movement. Only about fifteen metres or so separated the two of them, though those behind her were still much closer to their leader than he was. He noticed her head dip and then rise as she examined him from head to toe, sizing him up for… something.

"A challenge, Jedi," she replied after a few moments of uncomfortable silence. "So many new opponents for us to test our strength against live in this galaxy. When I learned about it, I gathered as many as I could who wanted the same thing; to battle new and worthy foes. Your being here is a happy piece of luck, though. It makes things more interesting."

"What are you talking about?" Rassen frowned. "There are countless conflicts occurring back where we came from as we speak. The Republic and Sith Empire are fighting across the stars right now. You could fight almost any kind of enemy imaginable back home. There must be more to it than that."

There was once again silence from the woman opposite him. No, the Jedi realised suddenly, there was silence from every single one of the Mandalorians in the hanger. None of them so much as shifted as they waited for what their leader would say next. She spoke only after a few seconds of seemingly debating whether or not to tell him, an undercurrent of anger that was not directed at him in her words as she did so.

"I am tired, Jedi. So are all those who follow me. We are a proud people and should make our own way, not be led around like boot-lickers by the Sith."

"Rassen, what is she talking about?"

He turned at the sound of Kasumi's voice, his gaze meeting the thief's as she continued to hold the man next to her upright, who for his part appeared to be unconscious. Rassen's hand twitched for a moment as he considered using the Force to throw the two of them up the ramp and into the ship. With luck he could do it quickly enough to yell for Shaela to take off… but she wouldn't do it. He knew her well enough to know she wouldn't leave him behind, even if it doomed all four of them. All he could do was keep talking.

"The Mandalorians," he began, "were once a power to be reckoned with in the galaxy I come from. Three-hundred years ago they went to war with the Republic and very nearly defeated it, but they were ultimately unsuccessful. They have never truly recovered from that defeat and many have become little more than bounty hunters or assassins. Some tried to stick together after they were defeated, and they currently have a presence on the Sith capital world of Dromund Kaas."

He turned back to face the Mandalorian who stood in front of her fellows. "News of it would have reached the Republic if you had decided to try and break with the Sith," he said. "That means your people are still allied with them, and you," his eyes moved over the ranks of armoured men and women still aiming their weapons at him, "are a splinter group." Rassen's gaze then returned to the woman before him.

"That is why you call yourself 'Mandalore,' I take it? You have all stopped following the current Mandalore and you," he pointed at the woman in question, "are the leader and so have taken the title for yourself."

"Very good, Jedi." The new Mandalore seemed impressed with his guesswork. "I'm glad you can think as well as just swing a lightsaber around. This will be even more fun than I expected."

Rassen frowned. "What are you talking about?" he asked, not liking the implications of her words.

Mandalore laughed and while the people behind her did not, Rassen could still sense their amusement… and anticipation. "It will make you more satisfying to hunt," she said, voice dropping so low he could barely hear her. "I thought we would have to make do with just the commander, but a Jedi and their companions is an unexpected bonus."

"That's why you had Shepard?" Kasumi's voice still carried the same strain from before, the weight of the man in question still clearly proving difficult for her to support. "You brought him here from the Citadel months ago just to use him for… target practise?"

Rassen noticed how Mandalore sized up the petite woman the same way she had him just a few moments ago before she replied, voice dripping with distaste. "That wasn't me. That was my… associate."

The sound of voices suddenly reached him from behind the ranks of Mandalorians, the cause of the disturbance revealing itself as batarians began pushing past the armoured warriors, hundreds of them compared with the comparatively small number of their better protected allies. Rassen could have sworn Mandalore muttered a curse as one of the batarians broke away from the group of newcomers to stand next to her, his eyes filled with hatred as he stared at a point just past the Jedi.

The batarian's four eyes narrowed as he then turned his gaze to the woman next to him. "Why was I not informed they were here?" he spat, body trembling with rage. "You dare to think you have the right to deny the Hegemony its justice? To deny _me_ justice?"

"I dare." If Mandalore was in any way caught off guard by the batarian's fury, she hid it well. "You forget our agreement, Balak. I promised to have Shepard healed for you on the condition my warriors could test themselves against the greatest your galaxy has to offer. I have fulfilled my end of the bargin; now I will see just how formidable he truly is."

"No!" Balak exploded, Rassen tensing as he noticed how the other man's hand twitched towards the pistol at his hip as he screamed at the woman he was addressing. "It was also promised that he would suffer first. I said you could have what was left when I was finished!"

There was a moment of silence before the Mandalorian replied, voice calm but bristling with a deep fury. "Circumstances have changed, Balak," she said slowly, as though she were speaking to a child. "You claimed no one would so much as guess where he was. You were wrong. You'll still be getting your revenge, even if there's no torture. He'll still be dead."

She turned back to face Rassen, only to pause with her gaze resting on something behind him, something beyond Shepard and Kasumi. Frowning at whatever had given the armoured woman pause, Rassen cautiously looked over his shoulder, only to feel a spike of fear at the sight of Shaela making her way down the ramp to stand next to him, pistol levelled directly at the centre of the Mandalorian leader's visor. While most of the Mandalorians and batarians kept their weapons pointed at him and the other two humans, several shifted to focus on the new target, though they still did not fire.

"Shaela," he whispered, causing her to react barely imperceptibly, pistol never wavering. "What are you doing? Get back on the ship."

The quarian didn't turn her gaze away from the woman across from them, who seemed to be analysing her the same way she had both him and Kasumi. "I'm not hiding on the ship anymore, Rassen. If we're going to have to fight, I'm going to be right next to you."

"There will be no fighting for the moment, I'm afraid." Mandalore didn't seem intimidated by the fact a weapon was being aimed directly at one of the most vulnerable parts of her armour as she spoke. "There would be little challenge in simply gunning the four of you down where you stand."

"Isn't that what you did on Horizon?"

Hundreds of pairs of eyes, including Rassen's own, turned to look at Kasumi as she continued to struggle to hold up the man next to her. "I saw what you did to the colony. You killed all of those innocent people. Why do we get a pass?"

"Because they would have been no challenge to battle and the four of you are."

Rassen felt the flare of anger from the armoured woman at the mention of the colony, but it was nothing compared with the fury he felt at the ending of the lives of so many innocents being dismissed so casually. He tried to reign in his anger but still felt the ground begin to tremble beneath his feet. The vibrations were weak at first, but they quickly grew stronger until a small hand gently rested itself on his shoulder. Instantly, the movement of the ground stopped, the only ones who had noticed being himself and the quarian who now gazed up at him in concern, silver eyes wide behind the light blue faceplate that covered them.

Nodding slightly so she could tell he was okay, he asked a question that had burned in his mind almost since the moment he had made it back. "Why?" he managed.

"Why what?" Mandalore tilted her head in confusion, causing his rage to grow even as he struggled to keep it in check.

"Why…" Each word was more difficult than the last. "Why do it? Why did you kill all of the people on Horizon?"

The response was accompanied by a shrug. "It was necessary. A statement had to be made."

Rassen's world had turned red now. Even Shaela's hand tightening its grip on his shoulder was barely enough to help him control the fury that seemed to suffuse every fibre of his being. "Why?" he asked again, voice nearly failing him.

Mandalore seemed to debate whether to tell him or not before apparently deciding she had revealed so much already she might as well continue. "I've been here for a few weeks already, Jedi, though the last of my people only arrived a few days ago, as you know. It was obvious right away that to test ourselves we needed more than just a single war hero, though he will make a good start. The major powers of this galaxy are exhausted and war-weary after their conflict with the Reapers. No one would send a task force if we simply raided a few vessels to make ourselves known."

"So you decided to wipe out an entire colony just to… to goad the races of this galaxy into fighting you?" Rassen couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"You're insane!" Shaela spat, the quarian's gun arm trembling as she continued to aim her weapon. "All of those people died for nothing. There's no way you can beat even one of the races here, let alone all of them!"

Mandalore laughed coldly. "We will see," she declared. "A small fleet will probably come and investigate, and we will be ready for it."

Understanding now dawned. "That is why you have formed a partnership with the batarians," Rassen said. "You were unable to bring any ships with you because of the device we both used to get here, but with their vessels—"

"Exactly, Jedi. Once we have crushed whatever force is sent to investigate the loss of Horizon, word of it will be spread to every Mandalorian that can be found by my agents back home. Our time as a dominant power in our galaxy may be over, but we will re-establish ourselves as one to be feared in this one."

"You won't win." Kasumi's voice was faint now and her knees trembled so badly it looked as though she would collapse at any moment. "You underestimate everyone in the Milky Way. We beat the Reapers. We can beat you."

"We'll see." Mandalore turned to her soldiers before looking back at each of them in turn, eyes resting on Rassen last of all. "Before all that, though, is the matter of you four. Consider yourselves a warmup. You have one hour to get a head start. You can try to call for help, but I'm afraid you will find communications have been rather lacklustre recently, which you may have noticed already."

She paused for a moment before continuing. "You can try to run to the other side of the galaxy, but you'll find we've locked down this system's relay, so you can only go back the way you came, and we control that system's one as well. Hide on Horizon in the ruins of the colony, or on any of the planets near it for all I care. Once an hour has elapsed, though, the hunt begins."

"And we're supposed to believe you?" Kasumi demanded incredulously. "What's to stop you shooting us down the second we're outside the hanger?"

Mandalore regarded her coldly. "If I wanted to simply kill you, I'd have done so already. What reason do I have to lie?" She was silent for a moment before speaking again. "Fifty-nine minutes. I've already started counting."

Out of the corner of his eye, Rassen noticed Shaela move over to the thief, slinging the still unconscious Shepard's free arm over her shoulders, the two of them slowly ascending the ramp with the commander. He knew he shouldn't waste any time. Every second of their head start might prove vital to their survival in a way he currently didn't realise. There was one last thing he had to understand, though. One last piece of the puzzle he was missing.

"The device we used to get here," he began, drawing the armoured woman's attention back to him. "Where did you find it? More to the point, how did you find it?"

"You're almost down to fifty-eight minutes, Jedi. Are you sure you want to waste more time talking with me?"

"Yes."

"Rassen!"

He turned to see Shaela and Kasumi had almost managed to get Shepard into the safety of the ship, the quarian staring at him worriedly. "We have to go!" she begged, stumbling slightly as Shepard rocked in place.

"I know." He looked back at Mandalore as he began backing away, keeping his lightsaber at the ready just in case. He was about to ask again, only for his eyes to widen as the man next to her snarled in rage, looking between his unlikely ally and the Jedi before staring hatefully at the three people beyond Rassen.

"No! I will not stand for this!" Balak suddenly drew the pistol at his side, pointing it directly at Shepard, causing Rassen to shift to the side in order to keep himself between the batarian and the commander. "The other three mean nothing to me, Mandalore, but Shepard stays here. If not, they die now!"

Rassen felt a wave of fury roll through the gathered batarians as the Mandalorian leader casually grabbed Balak's wrist and twisted, relieving him of his weapon with laughable ease. "I have made my decision, Balak," she sneered. "Know your place."

Balak stared back at her for a moment before whipping round to face the huge number of his kin awaiting his command. "Kill all of them except Shepard!" he screamed. "Only wound him!"

"Enough!" Mandalore roared. "Mandalorians!"

Dozens of armoured warriors turned their blasters away from the small group, aiming them at the much more numerous but less well protected batarians. Staring in shock at just how easily the two factions had turned on one another, Rassen at first didn't notice the appearance of a second humming noise, much louder than that of his lightsaber. It was only when there was a flare of red light behind him, accompanied by Shaela gasping, that he turned, eyes widening at the sight before him.

Shepard was awake, and in his hands sat the immense weapon Rassen had noticed Kasumi had acquired at some point during their time in the base but not remarked on. Its yellow and steel-coloured body glinted as a result of the blood coloured glow being generated from its muzzle, highlighting the symbol on its side of a yellow circle containing three black wedges around a central dot. The humming grew to an unbearable pitch, causing the Jedi to turn back in the direction of the Mandalorians and batarians, who had abandoned their stand-off to stare back in the direction of the ship at the sheer noise of the weapon.

"Rassen."

He looked back at Shepard. The man was barely standing, eyes almost shut as he pointed the huge weapon directly in front of him. Despite his condition, Shepard's jaw was set, the gun not wavering in the slightest. For a moment Rassen could see just what made him special, just what had enabled him to be the spear point of the effort to protect all intelligent life in this galaxy against machines that made the most dangerous droids of Rassen's own look laughable at best.

"Get out of the way."

Rassen moved to the side and then the world seemed to explode. Throwing an arm up in front of his closed eyes and looking away, the Jedi could still see the unbelievable brightness of the explosion that occurred after the commander fired, the projectile that was responsible sailing past him and then Mandalore and Balak.

Right into the cluster of Mandalorians and batarians beyond.

* * *

His ears rang despite the helmet he wore. Even after the explosion had vanished he still couldn't see properly at first. It was only when the all-consuming brightness that filled his vision had finally abated that he lowered his arm and turned his gaze back in the direction of the Mandalorians and batarians.

Or rather what was left of them.

Those at the centre of the blast were… gone. Obliterated in an instant. Moving outwards from the explosion there were body parts; an arm here, a leg there. Right at the edge of the detonation were more intact bodies, though they were unmoving. Rassen stared in awe at the sheer destruction the weapon had wrought. How many had been killed? Hundreds at least.

As he watched, some of the figures at the edge of the blast began to move, slowly and painfully climbing to their feet. The assorted Mandalorians and batarians began to blindly search for their weapons, hands scraping over the dented and pitted surface of the hanger floor as they hunched over. Rassen flinched as a hand suddenly appeared on his shoulder, whipping round to find himself staring into Shaela's faceplate, the quarian's silver eyes wide with horror but still somehow filled with determination.

"Rassen, we have to go."

He nodded once, sparing one last glance behind him before marching over to Kasumi and helping her with Shepard, who looked like he was about to pass out again, Shaela bringing up the rear as the ramp closed behind them. As soon as it had, he and Kasumi began to carry the commander to one of the ship's beds as Shaela headed directly for the cockpit, and in moments the ship was rising from the floor of the hanger, exiting it soon after, bound directly for the system's mass relay.

* * *

Shaela flew the ship as fast as she could, attention focused entirely on the object that slowly grew larger as the vessel raced towards it. The churning core of the relay, coloured an electric blue, seemed to beckon to her, promising that if she could just reach it they would be safe. Well, safer than they would be otherwise. A black dot suddenly appeared as she watched, blocking a tiny part of the light being projected by the immense construct behind it. While it was too far away for her to make out any distinguishing features, she knew it was a ship.

The quarian jumped as the door behind her slid open, heart leaping into her throat before she realised the armoured figure was Rassen and not a Mandalorian that had stowed away. Nodding shakily at him, she turned her gaze back to their destination, feeling a small amount of relief that the black dot didn't seem to be moving towards them.

"Is that a ship?"

She nodded quickly. "Yes, but it doesn't look like it's on an intercept course. If we can hit the relay quickly enough then maybe whoever's on board won't know about what just happened. If they think the hunt is still on then maybe we can get out of this system."

"Unless there are no Mandalorians on board. If that is the case then I doubt the batarian crew will allow us to go regardless of what Mandalore said."

"I know." She turned to face him as he stood behind her and looked out of the cockpit at the relay. Biting her lip for a moment, she asked a question she knew she wouldn't like the answer to.

"Rassen, what do we do?"

The Jedi turned to face her. "I honestly have no idea how to proceed," he admitted. "Once we hit the relay, we can only go back the way we came. We cannot contact anyone for help. We also cannot fight since there are probably still dozens of Mandalorians and batarians around, perhaps hundreds. Our only option, it seems, is to hide. Which—"

"Is exactly what Mandalore wanted," Shaela finished, trying hard not to panic. Giving into fear wouldn't help them right now. Despite how it was exactly what she didn't want to do, Rassen was right. Their only chance was to go back to the system they had just been in and hide.

"If we can avoid them for long enough," she muttered, "then a Systems Alliance fleet should arrive to investigate what happened to Horizon. I don't know if it will be a match for them, though, not after the Reapers."

Rassen was silent for a moment. "We do not know how many ships the batarians have," he muttered finally. "All we know for sure is that Shepard just killed hundreds of them along with plenty of Mandalorians. We have to hope that will be enough to make a difference for when help turns up."

The relay was close now. Close enough that Shaela could make out some of the details of the ship that sat in front of it at they drew closer. It was an exact mirror image of their own craft, the black and grey of its hull only being visible as a result of how close it was to their way out of the system. Tensing as she prepared to bank the ship to the side at the slightest indication they would be fired upon, the quarian took a deep breath to try and calm herself as a hand rested on her shoulder, steadying her.

It was only when they passed the other ship, which made no attempt to stop them, that Shaela returned her attention to the mass relay, which now filled the entirety of the viewport in front of her. Lining their vessel up with the immense structure, the quarian felt a surge of relief. They were still in unbelievable danger, but once they were back in the same system as Horizon, they would at least have several planets to hide on. They would at least have a chance now, even if it was only slight.

"I should check on Shepard and Kasumi," Rassen muttered, gently squeezing her shoulder before releasing it. He looked reluctant to leave, which caused her to smile up at him despite their situation. "Pick a planet or moon for us to land on and once we are hidden we can talk."

He had already turned to leave when she spoke, but he still pivoted to face her as she did so. "Rassen," she began, "I want to know, but there are more important things to worry about. If you want to wait, I understand."

The human didn't answer her for a moment, causing her to frown before he raised both hands to the helmet he still wore, removing it and smiling gently at her. "I know," he said simply. "But I still want to tell you. Besides there was something you wanted to tell me as well, was there not?"

"I, um, yes," she stammered. "You better, um, see if Kasumi needs help with Shepard."

"I will." Rassen clearly picked up on her reaction, but he seemingly decided not to comment on it for the moment. Smiling at her again, the Jedi left the cockpit, door sliding shut behind him, leaving her alone with her thoughts.


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: Not as long a wait this time, since I found this chapter much easier to write than the last one. If anybody is interested, the first of those one-shots I mentioned is up, and I'd love to know what you all think. I will develop it into a full story at some point, but only after** _ **Spectre**_ **is complete. As always, I hope you enjoy this new chapter.**

 **Responses to reviews are as follows:**

 **Guest: But how would a small faction stand a chance against the Sith? Much better to simply break with the majority and go their own way than turn on the followers of the dark side and get wiped out.**

 **AnarionRising27: Great to hear that you liked it! With there being a few different portrayals of the Mandalorians over the years (Clone Wars, Old Republic, etcetera) I was a little worried I would receive some complaints about how Mandalorians act. For me, I've always preferred the version in the KotOR games and SWTOR, where they value strength and battling worthy foes, but are not above committing horrors on innocents in order to draw said foes out. I don't know if you're familiar with the Mandalorian Wars from the old EU, but that's what happened there.**

 **seabo76: Quite literally Chekov's Gun there, huh? I completely agree with you regarding it; it was a massive pain if you missed, or in my case blew yourself up over and over again.**

 **I'm very glad to hear you enjoyed chapter 17; it proved very tricky to put together, as I've mentioned, so it's relieving to hear it worked for you.**

 **SocietE: Hey, thanks!**

 **By "good characters" I take it you are talking about both the ones I've made up and the ones that actually exist in the games? If so, that's awesome to hear, since I've honestly just tried to write the best stories possible at the end of the day. Also glad the actual crossover aspect has worked for you, since that always felt a bit forced to me while reading other people's stories, and as a result I really spent a lot of time thinking about how I would tackle that.**

 **Chapter 18: Venture**

As the door closed behind him and he began to make his way to where Shepard and Kasumi were, Rassen allowed a frown to overtake his features. Whatever it was Shaela wanted to tell him about, it clearly worried her a great deal. That alone was enough to worry him in return. For a moment he was tempted to go back and ask her about it, but the Jedi Knight quickly dismissed the idea. He needed to update the other two while the quarian hid them, then they could talk.

 _How do you think she will react when she hears about me, Rassen? Do you remember when I looked into your little alien lover's mind? Do you remember how she screamed?_

Rassen snarled, his shock at the return of Zaressh's voice quickly overwhelmed by the anger he felt at its words. Still, he refused to answer, focusing his mind on the task at hand as he headed for the ship's bunkroom, which was both where Kasumi had recovered after her injuries on Watchman and where they had all been sleeping so far. The beds may have been surprisingly uncomfortable, but they were still much better than the floor.

Already forgetting about Zaressh's voice as he reached the room in question, Rassen felt a small smile appear on his face at the sight before him as he entered. Shepard was still lying on the same bed he had helped Kasumi get him to, and looked as though he would fall asleep at any moment. Next to him sat the thief, who hardly looked any better off. Despite not wanting to intrude, their voices still reached him as they argued quietly.

"You need to sleep," Kasumi insisted, her words ringing a little hollow given how drained she looked herself. "We had to help you the whole way out, Shep."

It took the man she was talking to a short while to respond. "I can't until we're safe," he muttered. "We might need to fight again at any moment."

"Rassen, help me out here."

The Jedi raised an eyebrow at that, having made no noise or even so much as shifted since stepping into the room. Kasumi, on her part, hadn't so much as looked in his direction, leaving him impressed she knew he was there, given her current state. He approached the pair of them, not speaking until he had lowered himself into one of the several free seats nearby.

"Shaela is currently choosing a planet for us to hide on," he began. "She will take us down as soon as she has, and then we can start looking for somewhere out of the way."

"Tell her we should turn off all systems except life-support when we can," Kasumi said instantly. "The more we have active, the easier we are to detect."

Rassen nodded. "Understood." He looked away from the thief at Shepard before returning his gaze to her. "All of us are exhausted, but both of you should sleep first." As the two of them were about to reply, he beat them to the punch.

"I understand neither of you want to," he said, "but you two need sleep the most out of the four of us. Commander," Rassen turned his gaze directly to Shepard, "recovering from floating in a kolto tank is only possible with rest." Then he looked at Kasumi. "You lost a lot of blood on Watchman. I can heal people, but I cannot replace that for you. You need to sleep almost as much as he does."

While neither of the room's other occupants were happy, both seemed to accept his appraisal of the situation. Nodding to them, Rassen stood up and was about to leave before Shepard's voice stopped him short.

"Wake us in a few hours then. I'm still interested in finding out who you are."

He turned back to face the barely conscious figure on the bed. "I will," he nodded. Rassen once again turned to leave, only to pivot for a second time as Kasumi reached out and tugged on his arm.

"Look, big guy, since it's only going to be the two of you up, you better talk to Shaela about whatever you've been keeping from her." Rassen opened his mouth to speak, but the thief pressed on before he could. "She's really worried about you, Rassen. She cares about you a lot."

"And I her," he replied. "Which is why I have already agreed to tell her." Smirking as he noticed Kasumi's cheeks colour slightly, Rassen gently removed her hand from his arm before giving her a genuine smile. "Thank you," he said honestly.

"For what?" Kasumi looked completely confused. "If you've already decided then I didn't do anything."

"Thank you for caring about her," he elaborated. "That means a lot to me."

"No problem, Ras."

He glared in response, prompting Kasumi to smirk back at him as she saw his reaction to the nickname. He was about to remind her of her promise not to use it, only for the thief to let out a loud yawn before curling up in her chair and closing her eyes, Shepard shutting his own a second later. Shaking his head slightly, Rassen quietly left the room, smiling to himself. It hadn't gone unnoticed by him that Kasumi had decided to remain at the commander's bedside as opposed to choosing to sleep in one of the several vacant beds nearby.

* * *

The green planet slowly filled her vision as she guided the ship towards it, the world appearing almost serene after the events of the past few hours as it sat there surrounded by the blackness of space. Venture, as it was called, was the first planet in the Iera system, and it was home to a small colony and not much else. With a dense atmosphere that was overwhelmingly made up of nitrogen and punishing temperatures given its proximity to the system's sun, it was hardly surprising the world was so lightly populated.

Shaela had quickly ruled out Horizon as being a good place to hide. The rolling grasslands that made up most of the planet provided few locations to conceal a ship, and with the colony destroyed, they couldn't hide it in a hanger either. Watchman had been discarded soon after, the frozen world being an equally bad place to run to. It was certainly inhospitable enough to be one of the last places in the galaxy you would expect to find someone, but its undisturbed nature had Shaela worried. Any signs of their presence would easily be preserved by the ice and snow, thanks to the small planet's limited atmosphere, and she had no idea how thoroughly the Mandalorians and batarians would be willing to comb each world before moving onto the next. If they were to send down a squad equipped to deal with the temperature to the right area…

It didn't bear thinking about.

The third planet she had analysed, the second in the system, being situated after Venture and before Horizon and Watchman, was called Prospect. A gas giant, there was no way to land on its surface. By process of elimination then, the quarian had decided on Venture. While there were plenty of moons in the system as well, Shaela had reasoned that the larger the place they hid was, the harder they would be to find on it. The more time they had, the better.

Venture wasn't the most pleasant world she had ever set eyes on, but it would have to do.

"Any sign of trouble?"

She looked over her shoulder as Rassen approached, the door closing behind him as she shook her head in reply. "No, but I don't expect that to last. A small fleet of batarians and Mandalorians could come through the relay at any moment."

The human nodded once. "And this world is the best option we have?"

"I think so." Shaela pointed at the planet in question, the single shade of green it had been when she had chosen it now having given way to a wide variety of darker and lighter blotches. Squinting, the quarian could just about make out some of the more prominent features of its terrain, there being a number of what appeared to be valleys that were so large they could be seen from outside the planet's atmosphere.

"Do you see those?" she asked, continuing to point as Rassen walked directly behind her, leaning over her shoulder in order to get a better look. Her heart beat faster at his proximity, the effect he had on her greater than normal with so little distance between them. Shaela swallowed heavily as he turned to face her, suddenly aware only a few inches separated their faces now. Well, only a few inches… and her helmet.

"I see them," Rassen said softly, tone suggesting he had noticed just how close they were to one another as well. "Any of them would be a good place to hide, especially if they contain any caves. I may not be entirely familiar with how batarian scanners work, but they must have greater difficulty penetrating rock than air, right?"

"That's… that's true," Shaela managed, thoughts increasingly drifting away from what they were discussing as her mind began to focus on him instead. "Venture's atmosphere is pretty thick, though, which means any sensor technology will be less effective here than on most other planets anyway."

Rassen smiled gently. "A very good choice then, Shaela."

"I thought so." She then remembered why he had left. "So, how are Kasumi and Shepard?"

"Exhausted, but then I think we all are. I managed to persuade them they needed to sleep, and they agreed, albeit a little begrudgingly."

"You need sleep, too." Shaela frowned at the shadows under his eyes. She couldn't remember seeing them before, but she vaguely remembered hearing once that humans could get them when they were very tired.

"As do you," Rassen muttered softly. "I told them I would wake them in a few hours, then we can both rest. For now that gives us enough time to talk."

"Ah," there was a lump in her throat now, "right, yes… talk." She turned her attention back to the planet as the ship vibrated heavily, the dense atmosphere causing more turbulence than was normal. "We should land first," she said as she looked back at Rassen. "Once we're hidden and there's much less chance of us being attacked, I mean."

"All right." The Jedi nodded calmly, but Shaela knew him well enough to pick up on the fact he was deeply relieved there would be a short while until they could properly speak. She was about to ask right there and then what it was he wanted to tell her out of sheer curiosity, only to jump an inch off the chair she was sitting on as a second bout of turbulence struck the ship.

 _Later_ , she thought. _Land first and then we can talk._

* * *

Every part of her body hurt.

Snarling as she tried to rise, only to lift herself a few inches off the floor before collapsing back down, Mandalore's eyes moved over the unbelievable amount of slaughter around her. Mandalorians and batarians alike had been vaporised or blasted to pieces, the unmistakable stench of blood hanging in the air like a cloud. Gritting her teeth and trying again to stand up, only to once more fall back down after barely moving, she noticed something was resting across her back. Something heavy.

Groaning as she did so, Mandalore twisted round so her front was now beneath the object, which revealed itself to be a batarian corpse. Manoeuvring her hands underneath it as best she could, the armoured woman let out a roar as she lifted the body up several inches, muscles trembling, and threw it to the side, freeing herself. Panting heavily, she rolled back onto her front and finally managed to stand, gaze now moving to the area of the hanger where the ship had been.

Before her sat an empty area of metal flooring, unblemished save for its cobbled together nature, its relatively pristine condition causing it to stand out against the dents and pockmarks that now dotted the rest of the area. Glancing behind her, Mandalore saw that a massive chunk of the far wall had been obliterated by whatever had been fired, the crater that stared back at her the result of several feet of solid metal having being removed from existence at its deepest point. The edges of the crater had melted from the sheer heat of the explosion before hardening as they cooled, thick streams of metal having run down much of the wall before turning solid.

Taking a step closer to the impact site, she hissed at an intense stabbing pain in her waist, glancing down to stare at the fragment of metal protruding from the area in surprise. The piece of debris had smashed into the armour that covered her torso with such immense velocity it had actually managed to penetrate it, though given the fact she wasn't bleeding to death, clearly it hadn't got very far into her body despite how painful it was.

The sound of footsteps nearby caused her hand to drop to her side, only to find no weapon there. Grunting at the agony that resulted, she bent down and grabbed the first gun she spotted, a batarian assault rifle, and twisted round, barely able to stop herself from firing at the sight of the other Mandalorian, who stopped advancing and held up a hand. Scanning the figure before her, who had their other hand pressed firmly against a profusely bleeding thigh, she nodded once before lowering her weapon, turning her attention to her wrist, only for the device there to flicker weakly as she attempted to activate it.

"Is your omni-tool still working?" Mandalore asked as she returned her attention to the newcomer, unable to keep the fingers of her free hand from curling into a fist as the number of dead around her began to sink in. As the other Mandalorian muttered an affirmative, she allowed the corners of her mouth to curl upwards just slightly.

"Notify everyone who's still alive and not severely injured to take the ships from the other hangers to the Iera system. Contact every vessel currently away from base and tell them to do the same." Mandalore looked around again at the sheer number of bodies before continuing.

"And tell them all that once we've tracked down the four of them, none of them die quickly."

The last order caused the other Mandalorian to freeze, omni-tool already activated and one hand raised above it. "M-Mandalore," they stammered, their voice revealing they were female, "wouldn't just killing them be enough? I mean," she gestured at the destruction around them, "it would be safer just to shoot them, wouldn't it?"

Mandalore snarled, closing the distance between the two of them before seizing the other woman by the throat. As her subordinate tried to remove the hand with both of her own, she tightened her grip, cutting off the other Mandalorian's air supply as she leaned so close in their visors were almost touching.

"They die begging for mercy for this," she snarled. "Do as I say or you can join them." She released her grip, causing the other woman to inhale deep lungfuls of air as she massaged her throat as best she could despite her armour. Surveying her coldly, Mandalore sneered before speaking again.

"You're weak. Twice now the Jedi has knocked you unconscious. Against any other enemy you would be dead already. Now you are questioning my decisions. I'm beginning to think I made a mistake bringing you to this galaxy with me, _little sister_."

The other woman glared back at her, body trembling with rage. Slowly, however, she returned her attention to her omni-tool and did as she had been ordered. Looking away from her now she was complying, Mandalore walked back over to the body she had lifted off herself, tilting her head curiously at it. Rolling the corpse over with one foot, she allowed a smirk to overtake her features.

"You should have worn some better armour, Balak."

* * *

As Shaela gently guided the ship through the valley they had chosen to explore, Rassen watched her carefully. The quarian's shoulders were hunched, one of her feet was gently tapping against the floor, and she kept shooting looks in his direction. Everything about the way she was acting was making him more and more worried. He had thought he was the one with the terrible secret, but he was starting to seriously wonder if what Shaela wanted to tell him could be as bad or even somehow more disturbing. Quite frankly, he had no idea how that was possible, but that didn't stop him from shooting looks of his own right back at her despite trying to do his best not to make her any more apprehensive than she already was.

Eventually forcing himself to keep his gaze focused on what could be seen from the ship, the sloping green walls of the valley only interesting because of their colour, Rassen frowned as he noticed a discolouration ahead of them, though it was currently too far away for him to make out properly. As they drew closer to it, the patch of darker green revealed itself to be the mouth of a tunnel, the roughly circular entrance clearly the work of centuries or even millennia of erosion by water that no longer flowed through the valley and perhaps hadn't for an unfathomable amount of time. Pointing to his discovery and feeling Shaela's eyes follow his outstretched finger, Rassen noticed the size of the entrance looked just large enough for their ship to pass through cleanly.

"What do you think?" he asked, rocking forwards slightly on his feet as the quarian slowed their speed down. "Will they be able to detect us if we hide in there for the time being?"

Shaela nodded slowly in approval as she surveyed the dozens of feet of rock that stretched above the tunnel entrance before reaching the same height as the land around the valley. "I don't think so," she said, "but we'll need to shut down every system we don't need. If we're only giving out a small number of signals, the rock should be enough to stop the Mandalorians and batarians from picking up on them."

"Kasumi mentioned we should do that," Rassen muttered, narrowing his eyes as they began to carefully enter the tunnel, the darkness within making it difficult to see. He was about to ask the quarian if she could see where they were going, only to stop himself as their craft began to slowly rotate to face back towards the entrance. As it then began to lower to the ground, he nodded in understanding. They were currently far enough back from the way out as not to be easily visible from the outside, while being close enough and facing the right way so if they were found they could escape as fast as possible. He didn't know how much difference the foresight would make in the long run if they were detected, but they needed every advantage they could get.

"Good thinking," Rassen said as they gently touched down, causing Shaela to glance in his direction. From the way her eyes changed shape, he could tell she was smiling.

Glancing away and rolling his shoulders slightly, the Jedi Knight winced as both protested, a spike of pain shooting through each of them, reminding him he was still wearing the Mandalorian armour, even if he had removed the helmet. Trying to hide his discomfort, Rassen looked back at Shaela to see her staring at him, eyes now slightly narrowed as she noticed the look on his face. Shrugging to try and reassure her nothing was wrong proved to be a bad idea, causing him to grunt quietly as his shoulders complained again.

"Rassen?"

He looked up from where he had just begun examining his left shoulder, which hurt the worst of the two of them, eyes returning to meet Shaela's own. "How bad is it?" the quarian continued, giving him a concerned look as she rose from where she had been sitting in order to get a closer look.

He shook his head slightly. "Not too bad," he replied gently. "I am just a bit sore from helping Shepard through the base, I think. I should probably change out of this armour; wearing it for as long as I have is beginning to take its toll."

Shaela crossed her arms, causing him to give her a serious look. "I'm fine," he said honestly. "I will be back in just a few moments." Rassen glanced around the cockpit. "Can you power down everything we do not need on your own?"

The quarian relaxed slightly at his words. "I should be able to," she said confidently. "There's nothing too complicated about the ship's systems. To be honest, it will probably only take a minute or two."

Rassen smiled. "I will be back shortly," he promised, reaching out to take one of her hands in his own. Squeezing gently before releasing it, he looked into her eyes, feeling his smile falter. "I… We can talk then," he managed with difficulty.

Rassen turned and left the cockpit before Shaela could respond, wincing as his shoulders continued to protest. He hadn't been lying when he had told her he was well; his shoulders had certainly been heavily overworked, but he didn't think he had damaged them in any way. Even so, the pain was great enough that he didn't notice the quarian open her bag before removing a syringe, Shaela placing it on the pilot's console as she returned to her chair, staring at the object as one of her feet began tapping and the door of the cockpit once again closed between them.

* * *

Jedi were not supposed to become too attached to material objects, but as he began to don his armour, having removed the Mandalorian set, he couldn't deny just how pleasant the feeling was. Faded white replaced blue as lighter pieces took the place of much heavier ones, weight and protection giving way to flexibility and speed. There was also the fact that it was his armour, not a Mandalorian's. Despite its necessity, wearing a suit that had belonged to one of them, an individual who could have participated in the slaughter on Horizon for all he knew, had felt, well… wrong. There really was no other word for it.

Gingerly securing each piece of armour, the simple brown shirt and trousers he preferred to wear underneath to avoid chafing mostly vanishing beneath the plates as they always did, Rassen gently rotated his shoulders again, noting with approval that moving them hurt noticeably less than before. Supporting Shepard along would have proved difficult enough on its own, but wearing heavy armour was not something he was used to. The much lighter protection he now wore rendered his discomfort almost unnoticeable he had become so used to it.

Finally, he put on his hooded cloak, the dark brown material that made many associate the item with the Jedi like an old friend as it covered his back, arms, and the backs of his legs, though he kept the hood down for the moment. Running a gloved hand along his jaw, Rassen frowned at the short beard he was now sporting. Pushing the small amount of annoyance it caused from his mind, he started to head back to Shaela, taking a deep breath to steady himself. They had a lot to discuss and continuing to procrastinate would accomplish nothing.

Making his way back to the cockpit, each step seemed to take far longer than normal. He eventually reached it, however, and entered the small room, staring out of the cave through the viewport ahead and between the walls of the valley beyond, unable to see its end, as it stretched for potentially hundreds of miles. His eyes traced over the uneven surface of both walls, the green rock suddenly much more interesting than it had been earlier. He felt the room's other occupant staring at him gently as he avoided making eye contact with her, the quarian allowing him to figure out how to begin without rushing him.

Sighing as he did so, Rassen slowly lowered himself down to the floor, leaning his back against the wall just to the right of the door. A minute or so passed before he finally looked up at Shaela, who had remained where she was, the quarian for once taller than him given she was still sitting in the pilot's chair.

"This is going to take a while," he began. "A lot happened between Querra and Horizon… including a few things I am not proud of." He continued to look directly into the two silver orbs that waited patiently. "One last time, are you sure you want to hear all of this?"

Shaela didn't answer at first, rising from her chair before joining him on the ground, leaning against his side with her back pressed to the door as she gently rested her head on his shoulder. Instinctively, Rassen put an arm around her shoulders, drawing a noise of approval from the quarian as she looked up at him. "I want to hear everything, Rassen," she murmured softly. "But like I said before, if you don't want to tell me—"

"I do."

Shaela propped herself up slightly, taking some of the strain off his shoulder. Her eyes never wavered as he returned her gaze before beginning.

"It would probably be best to start just after we were separated."


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: I seem to currently be on a bit of a role, so here's another chapter already. My free time is going to be a little reduced soon, but I'll keep working on this story when I can. As always, I hope you all enjoy it.**

 **Responses to reviews are as follows:**

 **AnarionRising27: As always, it's great to hear that you liked it. I'm really excited for the next few chapters, so hopefully they'll be good. Thanks for reviewing.**

 **Chapter 19: Past Demons**

He needed to get moving.

Another human, a middle-aged man, had appeared at the end of the alleyway in which he stood just seconds ago. The newcomer had stared in shock at Rassen, clearly recognising from his cloak that he was a Jedi. The man's eyes had then moved to the motionless body of Zaressh, which lay in shadow, before widening in fear. Before Rassen could even try to explain, he had fled back the way he had come. Given the look of blind panic in his eyes, the Jedi wasn't willing to risk the possibility the man had noticed the corpse was dressed in Sith robes. Local security forces could be converging on his position at this very moment. The longer he remained where he was, the more likely he was to be detained.

Oh, there was no doubt in his mind they would accept he was a Jedi and Zaressh a Sith eventually, but that would mean contacting the Jedi Council on Tython to prove he was who he claimed to be. Naturally, the Council would have questions of their own for him. Where had he been after presumably being declared dead? What had happened during that time? Eventually they would find out about Shaela.

Rassen had made his choice, and he didn't regret it in the slightest. In choosing to tell her how he felt, he had defied the Jedi code and so might well be exiled by the Council. There was no guarantee they would actually go that far, it was true, but he still wasn't willing to risk it. Not when he might need his status as a Jedi to help him find a way back to Shaela's galaxy. Before he could leave, though, some instinct deep inside him, perhaps the result of his connection to the Force, though it could have simply been his own curiosity, suddenly told him he needed investigate the corpse nearby.

Walking painfully over to Zaressh's body, Rassen knelt down, eyes moving over the black armour and robes that covered every part of it aside from the face. It took conscious effort not to stare at the Sith's features, but he managed to avoid doing so as he began to search the body thoroughly. Despite everything Zaressh had done, it still felt fundamentally wrong to pore over his corpse, but Rassen couldn't help himself. The feeling that he needed to do so had grown stronger as he had approached, now so powerful he wasn't sure it was even possible to stop.

At first he found nothing at all. Zaressh's lightsaber was nowhere to be seen, and he hadn't seen the Sith in possession of anything else aside from the holocron he had just destroyed. Still, Rassen continued to examine the body before him, frowning as he noticed a pocket on the inside of the Sith's robe. Reaching into it, his gloved hand closed around a small but surprisingly hard object. Removing his hand slowly, Rassen held up the item to the same height as his eyes, which widened in shock as he realised what it was.

 _By the Force._

* * *

"What was it?" Shaela asked, tilting her head in confusion. Rassen allowed the corner of his mouth to twitch in reply, chuckling as the quarian huffed in response.

"I will get to that later," he said. "For now, however, do not worry about it." He felt his mirth evaporate as his thoughts returned to what had occurred after he had searched Zaressh's body, something the cockpit's other occupant noticed.

"Okay, what happened next then?" Shaela asked in a whisper, her eyes staring intently into his own, curious but without being intruding. Rassen sighed gently, glancing around the room they were in as he formulated his reply.

"I left the area as fast as I could. From there I started to look for any signs of mysterious disappearances. I hit a lot of dead ends; people vanish without a trace all the time, but…" he trailed off and Shaela tightened her grip on him slightly, clearly sensing his hesitation. Rassen smiled gratefully before squeezing her gently in return.

"About a year later," he continued, "I found myself on a small farming world at the edge of Republic space." He paused for a moment, smile vanishing completely. "A possible lead had brought me to the planet, which was called Talsae. I had no idea what I was looking for exactly. All I knew was there had been several unexplained disappearances in a short span of time. Still, I decided to investigate all the same and so managed to book passage there."

Rassen could tell he was speaking more slowly now, his mouth unwilling to say the words he was ordering it to. "After a few days on Talsae, I left the settlement I arrived at and was passing by a homestead where a small family lived." It was almost impossible for him to speak now, only Shaela's constant look of reassurance making it possible. "A small boy came out from the main building, but he was old enough to tell right away I was a Jedi. He shouted for his parents, who ran out to join him."

He swallowed heavily as he remembered the three of them, the looks of awe on their faces as they stared at him in amazement like a knife in his gut. "The… the mother told me there were a small group of raiders nearby that had been bullying the more isolated homesteads for protection money. Of course, what the money actually protected the inhabitants from were the raiders themselves. This family, though, had started to run out of credits, and they also had no vehicle by which to head to the safety of one of Talsae's cities. I would have let them use my own if I had possessed one, but I had used a hire transport to get there from where I arrived on world and it had already begun to head back."

Rassen tried to keep his breathing as normal as possible, but it didn't stop the floor beneath the two of them from trembling as the memories continued to flow. A small hand softly ran along his arm, the vibrations calming in response, though they did not cease completely.

"I promised I would try to protect them," he whispered, fighting past the lump in his throat. "They were good people, Shaela. Innocent people. I knew it was a bad idea, but I still—"

Rassen cut himself off, shaking his head as he tried to regain control of himself and continue. "I… There was another reported disappearance only a few hours after I met them. The begged me not to leave, but I promised I would not be long. I just wanted to find out whether it could be the result of something that would allow me to return here. I knew it almost certainly had nothing to do with that, but I… but I still left."

Shaela was watching him silently, eyes wider than he had ever seen them as she listened. "When I arrived at where the disappearance had been reported, it quickly became apparent the person in question had been abducted. Soon after, I found out they had been kidnapped by the same raiders I had heard about earlier, and an eyewitness said they were heading in the direction of the family's homestead. So I ran."

Tears were starting to blur his vision now, but Rassen forced himself to continue. He had to finish, had to tell someone else what had happened. "By the time I got there, it was too late. Their home was burning. Both the mother and father were dead, but their son was not."

The quarian next to him began to make quiet shushing noises, her grip on him tightening so much it was almost painful as her eyes continued to gently coax more out of him, no judgement there yet as she listened. "I-I…" Rassen trailed off before taking a deep, shuddering breath and continuing. "I managed to get him out, but I was still too slow. I held him as he… as he died, Shaela. His last words were when he asked me where I… where I had been."

"Rassen…" Shaela whispered, reaching out to gently run a finger along his face, the digit coming away wet as she gently brushed away the tears that had begun to fall. "You didn't know for sure if or when they would be attacked when you left them. It could have been days after you first met. Months, years, perhaps never."

Rassen stared into the quarian's eyes. "I know," he managed, "but I still failed them. And then, what happened next…" he trailed off, only the quarian's presence giving him the strength to try and go on. "I… I could have done it to stop them from killing other innocent people. That is what I told myself afterwards. The truth is, though…" he trailed off, unable to keep looking the woman he loved in the eyes until she gently took hold of his chin and turned his head back to face her.

"The truth is…" Shaela prompted gently.

Rassen swallowed. "They split up after burning the homestead. I have no idea why, but I did not let it stop me. One by one, I hunted them down. Some of them chose to fight, so I killed them. Some of them tried to run, but I still killed them. Some of them… some of them begged for mercy. I still killed them."

The look of shock in Shaela's eyes made it a herculean task, but Rassen made himself go on. "I could feel myself slipping, Shaela. I could feel the darkness building. It had been a year since I had last seen you, and I had no idea if I ever would again. Each day after I killed the last of them was worse than the one before it. Then just when I was about to give in… you happened."

"Me?"

"You," Rassen smiled, albeit weakly. "Just when I found myself starting to listen to… to it, starting to slip beyond the point of no return, I had a vision. I was meditating, trying to clear my mind, and you were suddenly opposite me. I..." he shook his head before continuing. "I don't know if it was the Force or just my own mind, but you told me to stay strong. To keep trying to find a way back to you. I… I told you I might never manage it, but you told me I would. After that, I managed to make peace with some of the darkness within me, but not all of it. It was enough, though, and eventually I learned of the disappearances of a number of Mandalorians, all of which were under the same circumstances. Following the trail they left led me to a device that brought me back here… back to you."

He could almost see the gears turning in Shaela's head as she tried to process everything he had just told her. "When you say you were starting to listen to it, what do you mean?" she asked.

"Almost as soon as I left the alleyway where I ended up after Querra, I heard a voice in my head," Rassen whispered. "But not just any voice. It started small, so small I could barely hear anything at first. Over time it grew louder. Soon I could make out individual words. Then I began to realise I had heard it before, that the voice belonged to someone I knew."

"Who?" Shaela breathed.

"Who do you think?" Rassen laughed mirthlessly. "Zaressh. Ignoring him proved… difficult… and I very nearly stopped completely on Talsae. Ever since I got back here, though, the voice has been much clearer than before. Much louder. Sometimes I do not hear it for hours at a time, but whenever I am at a low point, it is there." The look of horror in Shaela's eyes caused him to shake her hand off his chin so he could look away, but those silver orbs were so magnetic he soon found himself staring back into them without any prompting from the quarian.

"I have no idea how it happened. It might be a result of the Force bond between us, some small part of him surviving in me. Or I could be going mad. I honestly have no idea." He took a deep breath as he continued to stare into those two silver eyes that shone through the light blue of the material that covered them. "That is the truth of what happened while we were apart, Shaela," he whispered. "The whole truth."

Rassen honestly didn't know how she would react as she stayed in position, unmoving. Would it be with anger? Disgust? Fear? Those possibilities and so many others ran through his mind as he continued to stare into the two silver pools that never blinked as they stared back at him, the only movement their owner made the slight rise and fall of her chest as she breathed. He felt what little confidence he had plummeting as she continued to give him the same unreadable expression, but he resisted the urge to try and defend what he had done on Talsae or claim he had over exaggerated the extent of the voice in his head. He had given her the truth. It was down to her how she felt about it.

Slowly Shaela eventually began to untangle herself from him, her arms slipping away as the quarian shrugged off his own from around her shoulders. Swallowing heavily, Rassen allowed her to pull herself free, offering no resistance as she stood up before turning away from him. Watching in silence, he frowned in confusion as she walked over to the pilot's chair before reaching past it to pick up an object from the console he couldn't remember being there earlier.

His worry only grew as Shaela slowly made her way back over before sitting opposite him. At first she said nothing. A minute of agonising silence crept by. Then a second. A third had almost passed before the quarian's mouthpiece blinked to life as she spoke, so many different emotions in her voice Rassen couldn't identify all of them.

"I told you I helped people during the war with the Reapers, right?"

The Jedi stared in disbelief. Of all the responses she could have given, he hadn't expected that one. "I… Yes, you did," he managed.

Shaela didn't seem to pay any attention to his confusion as she spoke. "I spent the last part of the war helping out in a hospital on Rannoch. I volunteered but didn't have any experience, so I did what I could. It wasn't much, mainly applying medi-gel and trying to keep patients calm, but over time I started to learn more and more about treating the injured."

The quarian took a deep breath before continuing. "When the war ended, there were still a lot of injured people out there. There still are, even months later. Anyway, a few days after the fighting was over, I met an asari matriarch called Wessa. Over the following weeks, she helped me learn much faster than before, and I started taking the medical exams necessary to become a doctor."

"Like you always wanted." In spite of the situation, Rassen couldn't help smiling proudly. Despite how long they had been separated, despite everything that had happened to her in that period, Shaela had focused on helping people. Focused on trying to make a difference.

"Yes," the shape of the quarian's eyes gave away the fact she was smiling, which caused a small amount of the tension in the room to evaporate, "but I might have been able to help more people if…"

"If?" Rassen asked gently.

Shaela's smile seemed to fade. "When you… when you disappeared, I couldn't feel the Force anymore. No matter how hard I tried, it always seemed to be just out of reach, like it was still there but there was some kind of barrier between me and it."

Rassen nodded thoughtfully. "That would make sense. I do not believe Zaressh was lying when he said you feel the Force through me. With us being so far apart, it stands to reason you would be unable to use it on your own."

Shaela nodded herself now. "I felt it when you got back," she explained. "We were in completely different parts of the galaxy, but I still felt it."

"Which is when you set off."

Shaela shook her head. "Not right away, although I wanted to. My family were split on whether I should go on a potentially dangerous trip based just on a feeling. My sister and mother thought I should, but my father disagreed. Eventually, though, it came down to whether I could find a ship or not."

The quarian's voice caught in her throat, causing Rassen to reach out towards her, only for Shaela to push his hands away. The rejection hurt, but he did his best not to let it show. She had listened to him, now it was his turn to do the same. After a moment, Shaela found her voice again.

"Wessa let me borrow a ship. It… it was the last thing she had left of her bondmate, who passed away a long time ago. I promised to bring it back." A choked sob followed, and this time she allowed Rassen to pull her into an embrace. "I c-couldn't. I-I… couldn't keep my—"

"Shaela," he interrupted, voice gentle but firm. "What happened was not your fault. We were attacked. The Mandalorians and batarians are to blame for what happened, not you."

"But I—"

"No," he interrupted again, pulling away slightly so he could look her in the eyes. "It was their fault, not yours. She will not blame you for its destruction. You were in no way careless with the ship before that either, were you?"

"No," Shaela sniffled. "I just… just…"

"It was not your fault," he repeated.

"I…" the quarian sniffled again. "Thank you, Rassen." She pulled away, and this time it was even more difficult than before to disguise how he felt, but Rassen somehow managed it, succeeding in giving the cockpit's other occupant a look that gently prompted for more information, much like the one she had given him.

Shaela took a shuddering breath before continuing. "Before I set off," she said, "Wessa gave me some supplies. Medi-gel, kinetic barriers, and antibiotics in the case of a suit breach."

"Antibiotics?" Rassen asked, tilting his head slightly. "I'm not sure I understand. Is medi-gel insufficient if you get hurt?"

The quarian was shaking her head before he had even finished. "In the case of something that doesn't damage my suit or a minor breach, medi-gel on its own should be enough. It's mainly for repairing serious damage to someone's body rather than treating illness, so its antibacterial properties aren't as strong as I wish they were. If one of my people were faced with substantial damage to their suit, they would need something more specialised and faster acting."

Rassen nodded slowly. "I remember not long after we first met you told me about your people's immune systems. I did not realise medi-gel alone would not have been enough if your suit had been damaged while we were together."

Shaela now held up the object she had retrieved so he could see it, revealing it to be a syringe. "I accidentally knocked my bag while you and Kasumi were gone," she explained. "I hadn't checked its contents too closely before then, but as I replaced the things that fell out of it, I noticed what was written on the side of this wasn't what I expected."

Gently taking the object from her, Rassen rotated it until he could see the lettering in question. "Temrathaylene," he read. "I'm still not sure I understand. Is this not an antibiotic? Is it dangerous or illegal?"

"N-No," Shaela stuttered. "It's just that the antibiotics quarians normally use when there's a suit breach are very powerful but only for a short length of time. Our suits can normally seal themselves on their own to protect us, so that's all we need. Temrathaylene is much more expensive than those kinds of antibiotics because it's both strong and long-lasting."

"So this is used when a quarian requires surgery?" Rassen asked, frowning at the syringe.

Something about Shaela's tone caused his gaze to return to meet hers almost immediately. "Normally yes," she whispered, voice suddenly almost inaudible, causing him to lean closer. "But it's also sometimes used by quarians when they want to," she took a deep breath, "when they want to see each other."

It took a few seconds for what she had just said to sink in. Swallowing as he noticed the room suddenly seemed much smaller than it had a moment before, Rassen looked back at the syringe, freezing as it caught the light. "Shaela," he whispered, his voice now as quiet as hers, "this is empty."

"I know."

He turned back to face her as the quarian's hands rose to the front of her helmet, fingers slowly moving to the sides of her visor. "Even with something like temrathaylene this is risky," she murmured. "I might be almost unaffected, or this might make me so sick I won't even be able to walk tomorrow."

"Then stop," Rassen's voice sounded hollow, even to him.

"We could die in the next few days," Shaela whispered, the look in her silver eyes seeming to paralyse him as he continued to watch her. "I need you to see me, Rassen. To be able to look at me the way I can look at you, just this once." Her fingers finally reached the edges of her visor as she waited for what he would say next. As he stared back at her, Rassen noticed they were shaking almost uncontrollably. Shaela was terrified. Terrified she might die. Terrified he might not find her attractive. Terrified this was a bad idea. It could well be.

But he could see how much it meant to her.

His throat was so dry all he could do was nod. The quarian's fingers suddenly bent slightly, unclasping the barrier between them before lifting it away from the rest of her helmet by less than a millimetre. The faint smell of an antiseptic reached him, but he couldn't have cared less. Swallowing, Rassen placed his hands on the Shaela's arms, gently prompting her to lower the object she held. Her grip on it slackened, causing it to clatter to the metal floor next to her. A split-second later the syringe he still held joined it.

Shaela's face was both surprisingly human and also very much alien. Her silver eyes, he could now see, had irises and pupils like his own, but they were much closer in colour to the rest of each eye, the irises being slightly darker in tone and the pupils only a little darker than that. With the visor that had covered them gone, Rassen could see her eyes did indeed glow, though not quite as brightly as he had expected.

The quarian's nose, the tip of which he had been able to see before if at just the right angle when they were close, was the same size as a smaller human one, and was the most similar feature between them. Her mouth was almost as human-like, but Shaela's lips were thinner than those most of his own species had as they switched between two different expressions, their owner both exhilarated and terrified. Her teeth, as far as he could see, were again similar to his own, though perhaps each one was a little smaller than its human equivalent.

The quarian's skin was a light shade of grey, which meant it stood in contrast to the markings that ran across parts of her face. Presumably starting beneath her hair, which was a dark shade of blue—so dark in fact as to be almost black—a black line ran down each side of her face on the outside of each eye and across each cheek before meeting the nearest corner of the quarian's mouth. As her expression changed from joy to worry and back to joy again, the lines moved accordingly.

Rassen would have been perfectly happy if it had never been possible for him to see her face. He had known how he felt about her years ago and those feelings had only grown stronger over time. Knowing what the quarian looked like had never been a requirement for him.

But now he loved her even more than before.

As the seconds passed, Shaela's expression stopped flitting between excitement and fear, settling on just the latter. The quarian began to blink back tears and slowly looked away. "I… I th-thought this might happen," she managed. "I knew that just because I liked how you… how you looked, that didn't m-mean it worked both ways. We should just… just pretend this never happened." She began to reach for her mask, causing Rassen to lean forwards and push it gently out of her reach. The quarian froze, still not looking at him, breathing at a fever pitch.

"Shaela," he whispered. "Look at me."

Letting out a quiet whimper, the quarian slowly turned her head back to face him, tears beginning to run down her face as she trembled all over. Smiling gently at her, Rassen reached out, cupping her face in his hands.

"There you are," he said simply.

Then he leaned in and kissed her.

He wasn't sure what he had been expecting. They had kissed before with her mask separating them, of course, but this was something _very_ different.

Despite their comparative thinness, Shaela's lips were soft and warm, massaging his own as they parted, a gasp escaping her mouth as she realised what was happening. Rassen's eyes widened as the quarian suddenly grabbed onto him, a hand on one of his shoulders and its twin on his back as she pulled him forwards with surprising strength considering her slender form. He was unable to keep them open as she began kissing him back, their lips awkwardly pressing together, neither of them familiar with what they were doing.

Slowly though, they settled into a slow tempo, Rassen releasing Shaela's face in order to cup the back of her head with one hand and the back of her waist with the other. He pulled them even closer together, the smell of antiseptic stronger than before, not that he cared. In that one perfect moment, all he could concentrate on was Shaela. The sensation of her lips on his, the warmth of her body despite her enviro-suit, the muffled moans of satisfaction that managed to escape her mouth which he knew mirrored his own.

It could have been only a minute or so. It could have been hours. All Rassen knew was eventually the urge to breathe became all-consuming, and he broke off the kiss, gasping and inhaling deep lungfuls of air. Shaela was no better, the quarian heaving precious oxygen into her lungs with the same desperation he did. As he managed to get a handle on his breathing, Rassen saw the glint in her eyes, only to realise he'd noticed it too late to do anything about it.

Now it was Shaela's turn to take him off-guard, the quarian smashing her lips back into his as though trying to make up for the brief moment they had been separated. Rassen grunted as he again suddenly found himself being pulled forwards, Shaela having grabbed onto both of his shoulders this time before leaning back without warning, pulling him on top of her as she lay down on the floor. He moved his hands to the ground on either side of her head, balancing himself as best he could, his attention focused completely on the woman beneath him.

They eventually broke apart to breathe again, Shaela once more moving to rectify the situation a few seconds later, only for him to beat her to it this time. Grinning against her lips as she gasped, Rassen rolled the two of them over, pulling the quarian on top of him as they continued to kiss. His lips now hurt from both the increasing intensity of what they were doing and the length of time they had spent in use, but he couldn't have cared less as he ran his hands down Shaela's back, the small noises of pleasure she made in response all he could focus on.

Everything else had long faded away by this point. Zaressh, the Mandalorians and batarians, even Shepard and Kasumi, who were still asleep in the ship's bunkroom. As far as Rassen was concerned, it was just the two of them in a small bubble completely separate from the rest of the universe.

Shaela suddenly drew back slightly, the quarian's pupils dilated in a way that clearly had nothing to do with the lighting of the room. "I don't care what happened between Querra and you coming back," she breathed. "You're a good man, Rassen, and all of that is in the past."

He couldn't reply for a moment as he stared in awe at the conviction in the silver orbs that seemed to look directly into his soul. "But the voice—"

"I don't care," Shaela repeated. "Whatever it is, if it's some part of you or some part of Zaressh, it doesn't matter. We've been there for each other ever since we met, aside from after Querra, but that's never going to change again. Whatever that voice is, it's not having you. You're _my_ human."

Rassen didn't respond with words at first, instead reaching up to bring her face back down to his own, kissing her gently before separating their lips again. "And you are my quarian," he said firmly. "You always will be."


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: With this chapter, this story has officially passed** _ **False Masks**_ **in length. I just wanted to thank everyone who has made that possible, which is everybody who has reviewed, sent me a PM, followed, favorited, or simply dropped by every once in a while to see if I'd updated (I do keep an eye on how many views this story has received). I love writing this series; I wouldn't have got this far if I didn't. At the end of the day, though, it's you guys who deserve a very large amount of the credit for how despite a few issues (both in terms of writing and real life) I've always managed to continue this series despite my own doubts and insecurities.**

 **So thank you.**

 **Responses to reviews are as follows:**

 **AnarionRising27: That's one of the reasons why my updates have been more frequent recently. After 200,000 words in total including the first story, I really wanted to get to this moment, but also not to rush to it. This scene could have been in the first one, but I thought that might be much too early. It's awesome to hear you really liked this chapter; it was certainly my favourite to write in a while given it includes the scene I think everyone wanted to see a long time ago.**

 **Egil The Skald: Wow, thanks! It's fantastic to hear you love this story so far. I've noticed all of your follows and favourites and was hoping you might drop a review at some point, so it's great you did. One of the best you've read, huh? That really does mean a lot. I know the feeling of racing through a story or series on the site and then having to wait for the next upload and how frustrating that is.**

 **A couple of people complained about the pacing in the first story, which is something I tried to improve here. I'm very glad you found that to your liking.**

 **Guest: Fair enough, interesting point of view.**

 **Chapter 20: Similarities**

She couldn't remember the last time she had felt this content.

The metal flooring beneath her was uncomfortable, she would almost certainly feel very unwell in a few hours, and they could potentially be found at any moment. Despite all of that, though, Shaela honestly just felt… happy. There really was no other word for it.

She was breathing the same air as everyone else on the ship. It might have been the slightly stale kind common to certain makes of craft, but it was still the same air that the other three occupants were inhaling at this very moment, rather than the heavily filtered kind provided by her suit. It was strange really. Air was something she had never really given that much thought to aside from how it could potentially be laden with microbes. She hadn't imagined how strange it would feel breathing without the use of her suit after so long without removing her mask. It certainly wasn't hard in any way, but it was still different. It felt right.

The quarian sighed happily as she adjusted her position slightly, staring out of the front of the cockpit at the walls of the valley beyond the cave. Night was falling. One day was ending so another could begin. It was certainly fitting. After all, after what had just happened, nothing would ever be the same again.

And she couldn't have been gladder about that if she had tried.

She heard Rassen make his own noise of contentment in response, the arm that was currently draped around her shoulders squeezing her gently as she remained pressed against the human's side, the side of her head—which was still covered by her helmet—resting against his armoured shoulder. They had been in that position for hours now, but it felt like only a few minutes had passed as the two of them stared from where they sat in the direction of the valley, neither of them speaking, the two of them content to merely enjoy one another's presence.

"We should wake the other two soon."

Shaela shook her head slowly, glancing up at Rassen as he turned his head in her direction. "I don't want to," she said, knowing how immature it sounded but not caring in the least. "I never want to leave this room."

"I know the feeling," the human sighed, a look of reluctance on his features. "But we both need to sleep ourselves. I have noticed you almost drifting off a few times."

"I wasn't drifting off," she muttered quietly.

"Then what were you doing?"

Shaela scowled up at him, which only caused the human to laugh gently at her expression. "I did not notice your eyebrows before," he chuckled.

She felt her scowl change into a look of confusion. "What? You spent ages looking at my face earlier."

"There were a few other features of it that demanded much more of my attention."

"Such as what exac—"

She never finished her sentence, a low groan of satisfaction leaving her mouth as Rassen kissed her gently, allowing his lips to linger on her own for a few moments before he pulled away. The quarian's eyes fluttered shut before opening again when she realised the act was much shorter than she had hoped, the return of her scowl producing the same reaction from the man next to her as it had before.

"So what were you doing?" Rassen asked again, unable to hide the smirk that tugged at his lips as he looked at her own. Realising her mouth was slightly open, Shaela closed it before deciding to tell him.

"I was… I was daydreaming," she admitted.

"About what?"

"Us." As the human frowned in confusion, she began to elaborate. "I mean about what happens if we survive this. Let's say the Mandalorians and batarians are dealt with. Then what?"

Rassen used his free hand to gently stroke her cheek as he took a moment to think, causing her eyes to close at the sensation. The material of his glove was smooth as it ran across her skin, the feeling indescribable to her despite how mundane it would have been to almost anyone else. She could actually _feel_ it as opposed to having to imagine what it felt like with her mask separating her from the sensation. In that moment, Shaela promised herself she would never take an occasion where she was able to remove her mask for granted.

"I honestly am not sure," the human said finally. "You mentioned there are many people out there who are still suffering from injuries caused by the Reapers, right? I would like to help as many of them as I can. Perhaps I could accompany you back to Rannoch when all of this is over and help you treat those in need?"

Shaela felt her expression morph into a wide smile as she leaned up and kissed him, taking the Jedi by surprise if the look on his face as she withdrew was of any indication. Still grinning as she enjoyed her revenge, the quarian pressed the side of her face against his, closing her eyes at the strange yet comforting feeling of the short beard Rassen now had against her cheek as she replied.

"I love that idea," she whispered next to his ear. "No more violence, but we'd still be helping people." She allowed her voice to drop even lower in volume. "And if I remember correctly, there was a big surplus of temrathaylene at the hospital before I left, since it can only be administered to quarians and turians."

The slight shudder that Rassen gave off caused her to bite her bottom lip in response. "The idea sounds better and better," he managed. "First, though, we need to get out of this alive, and that means waking up Shepard and Kasumi."

"We can leave them for a few more minutes," Shaela replied, moving her face back in front of his. "I have something I want to do first."

As the human began to ask what it was, she pressed her lips to his in a wordless answer, both of them moaning into the kiss as they decided by mutual agreement they could afford to spend another moment or two together.

* * *

Something had changed in the atmosphere.

As she slowly blinked the fatigue from her eyes, Kasumi glanced over at Rassen, who had woken her a few moments ago. Even though she still felt tired, the thief could tell he seemed… different from normal. More upbeat, as though a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Despite how groggy she was, the change was obvious enough that she had picked up on it the moment he had gently pushed against her shoulder a few times to wake her before turning in the direction of Shepard, who he was attempting to rouse in the same way.

Her mostly still asleep mind struggled to work out what had brought about the change. They obviously hadn't been found yet, so perhaps he was happy about that? No, that couldn't be it. He was too… not carefree, but something like that. Rubbing her eyes as she heard Shepard mutter something unintelligible as Rassen continued to try and wake him, Kasumi continued to try and work out what it could be.

 _There was something I told him to do. Something he already…_

Her internal monologue trailed off at the sound of approaching footsteps which, given how Rassen and Shepard were still firmly in her field of vision, could only belong to the ship's fourth occupant. Turning her gaze in the newcomer's direction, the thief couldn't help frowning as she noticed Shaela seemed to likewise have undergone a mood change while she had been sleeping, the quarian appearing more relaxed than before, her shift mirroring Rassen's. Glancing between the two of them as Shepard finally woke up, a small smile overtook her features as she saw them look over at each other.

The smile exploded into a grin as the quarian shyly glanced away from the human, trying and failing completely at pretending as though everything was completely normal between them. Rassen hid his own reaction a little better, but the way one corner of his mouth curved upwards told her whatever had happened between them in the last few hours hadn't stopped at them simply talking.

Before she could try and pry anything out of either of them, Shepard suddenly attempted to rise from the bed, throwing his legs over its side before trying to lift his weight onto them. He cursed as he fell back down after only making it a few inches off the mattress before immediately trying again, only to fail for a second time.

"It will take a bit longer, Commander," Rassen said understandingly, causing her to glance at him. "I know it is frustrating now you have had some rest, but your body is still becoming used to being outside a kolto tank again. You still need to avoid overexerting yourself for another few hours or so."

Kasumi felt a small amount of frustration well up as Shepard shook his head. "We don't have time for that," he grunted, attempting for a third time to rise. "They could find us at any moment. I'm fine, I just need to—"

Whatever he had been about to say was lost as he managed to finally stand up properly, only to collapse against Rassen, who winced at the other man's weight. The Jedi gently lowered Shepard back down to the bed so he was sitting on it once more before inclining his head in Shaela's direction.

"Our resident doctor agrees with me, I am afraid," he said, a small smirk in place as he spoke.

Looking over at Shaela, Kasumi noticed her jump slightly before shaking her head. "I'm not a doctor yet… Oh, right. Yes, that's true. Definitely."

 _I was right. Something a lot more intense than just talking happened while we were sleeping._

"Sorry, Shep," Kasumi shrugged apologetically as he looked at her for support. "I've got to third that idea. You're still a long way from one-hundred per cent, whereas I," the thief got up from her chair, ignoring how her back screamed in protest at moving so quickly after having been in such an awkward position for several hours, "am feeling a lot better."

She turned to look at Rassen before moving her eyes to Shaela, gaze flitting between the two of them, her grin almost as wide as her face as they both began to shift uncomfortably. "Did anything interesting happen while we were asleep?" she asked as innocently as she could manage.

"No," Shaela replied, the quarian shaking her head with slightly too much energy for it to be convincing. "We haven't seen any sign of the Mandalorians and batarians, but with only life-support running, that's not surprising. We're currently on a planet called Venture, which seemed like the best place to hide given our options."

"Huh," Kasumi nodded, forcing herself to be professional despite how Rassen and Shaela were now once again looking at each other in a way that told her they knew something she didn't. "Well, you two need to rest. Shep and I can handle things for the moment. I'll keep an eye on him, don't worry."

To her surprise, Rassen shook his head before replying. "That can wait a bit longer. We still owe him an explanation about what the situation is. We can sleep after that."

Kasumi watched him curiously as he picked up a nearby chair before placing it in front of Shepard and lowering himself into it with a wince, clearly more exhausted than he was willing to admit. Rassen opened his mouth to speak, only to close it as Shaela selected her own chair before joining him, sitting so close to the human their sides were touching. Smirking at the sight of the two of them, Kasumi followed suit, grabbing her own chair and moving it before settling down on the quarian's other side.

"Brace yourself, Shep," she said, unable to keep a smile from tugging at her lips. "This is going to be a big one." She turned to Rassen and Shaela. "Do you two mind if I catch him up on what he's missed on my end first?"

"Not at all," Shaela replied, Rassen simply shaking his head. "Take all the time you need."

"Thanks." Kasumi turned her gaze back to the man sitting on the bed, whose attention was now completely fixed on her. Ignoring the strange feeling the intensity of his stare caused deep in her stomach, she took a deep breath before beginning. "What's the last thing you remember, Shep?" she asked gently. "We can start from there."

Shepard's face tightened as his eyes moved over the room's other occupants, who clearly picked up on how uncomfortable he felt. "Maybe we should leave you two alone for this bit," Shaela said, the quarian rising to her feet and nudging Rassen to do the same. "You've only just met us, Commander. If you'd rather just tell Kasumi, then we can come back later."

"I… No, that's not necessary," Shepard grunted, waving a hand at them. "I just… just don't want to think about it too much. You helped me when you didn't have to, and I owe you one. Besides, if you're going to tell me about yourselves, it's only fair I do the same."

He shifted slightly on the bed before continuing. "I should probably start with what happened just before I passed out and woke up to find Balak standing over me. During the battle on Earth at the end of the war, it all came down to one final charge. We had to get to the Citadel. It was our only chance of defeating the Reapers. If we couldn't, then that was it. Every member of every advanced species, every man, woman, and child would be either killed or converted by those monsters. So we charged."

Kasumi swallowed heavily. She had heard this part before. Liara had told her of the near suicidal rush towards the beam of bright blue light that led to the Citadel, how she and Garrus had sprinted just behind Shepard as infantry and vehicles alike were obliterated by the Reapers as they tried to prevent anyone reaching the objective. The asari had trailed off when she had spoken about how she and the turian had nearly been killed, leaving Shepard to carry on alone.

She was as silent as Rassen and Shaela as Shepard described how he had said goodbye to his friends before charging the last few hundred metres or so without support, a single Reaper, Harbinger, of course, noticing him as he drew closer and closer, the colossal machine's eyes glowing like a demon's as it sent a beam of scarlet energy towards him, the attack knocking him unconscious.

"When I woke up," Shepard continued, voice much thicker than before, "everything hurt. I thought any second might be my last, that I wouldn't make it. Somehow, though, I did." He trailed off, eyes moving to meet hers as Kasumi rose from where she was sitting to walk over and join him on the bed.

"It's okay, Shep," she said gently.

He nodded slowly before taking a deep breath. "After heading through the Citadel for a while…" he trailed off, and Kasumi got the feeling he had suddenly decided to leave out something important. Before she could even begin to guess what it could be, though, what he said next stopped her cold.

"I met the AI responsible for the creation of the Reapers."

Kasumi gasped, Shaela doing likewise a split-second later. Rassen didn't react quite as obviously, but his brow furrowed, the Jedi clearly understanding there were beyond serious implications, even if he didn't fully understand them.

"It offered me three choices," Shepard continued, "three options to bring an end to the war. I could choose to destroy the Reapers, which would also wipe out all other synthetic life. I could sacrifice myself in order to replace the AI and so gain control of them. Or I could sacrifice myself to merge organic and synthetic life together, thereby removing any possibility of future conflict between the two."

"And you picked the first option," Kasumi whispered, unwilling to say any more than that. For a moment she thought she wouldn't have to, but Shepard's gaze drew the truth out of her as he asked the question she knew was coming.

"EDI… the geth… they're gone, aren't they?"

"Yes," she managed, hating herself as his face crumbled.

"Damn it," he whispered almost silently.

Fury, despair, and regret raged across Shepard's face, and the realisation she had never seen him so vulnerable left her barely able to breathe. "I should have told it no. Told it to just wipe out the Reapers and nothing else. But every second I stood there thinking I saw another fighter get wiped out by those monsters, saw another life end. I panicked, I chose what I thought would do the least damage."

Tears began to fill his eyes, and Shepard wiped at them furiously. "I could have chosen one of the other two options. EDI and the geth would still be alive if I had just—"

"Of those three, you made the right choice."

Kasumi turned to look at Rassen in shock, the room's other two occupants following suit a split-second later. While the Jedi looked a little uncomfortable at the intensity of their stares, he didn't back down as he looked at each of them in turn, seemingly taking a moment to think about what he would say next.

"Based on what little I know about the Reapers," Rassen continued, eyes now ceasing their movement so they rested on Shepard alone, "they were constructs of pure evil. How can anything that was designed to end or convert all advanced life be viewed any differently? Merging both organics and machines would have taken away from the individuality of both, assuming it did not simply kill everything outright, given how fundamental such a change would have been. It would also have been forced upon countless billions who had no say in the matter by the choice of one individual."

He took a deep breath before continuing. "As for attempting to control them… that would have made you the most powerful being in this galaxy… if it was truly still you, Commander. Power itself is rarely as important as how it is obtained, however, and using the Reapers could easily have made you like their creator." Rassen shook his head. "The Reapers existed only to destroy. What guarantee would there have been that they would never resume that function at some point in the future? For the sake of everybody, you had to stop them."

Kasumi watched Shepard as he continued to stare at Rassen, who to his credit still did not back down. "But I couldn't save them all," the older man managed, voice cracking. "I knew I was condemning an entire species to death, as well as one of my closest friends, but I still did it."

Rassen was silent for a long time, and Kasumi began to wonder if he would ever reply. When he did, there was a note of sadness to his voice, one that hinted at a past wound that had healed as well as it ever could but would never fade completely. "Sometimes…" he trailed off, only for Shaela to take his hand and squeeze it. Rassen smiled sadly at her and turned back to Shepard. "Sometimes we cannot save everyone. We all wish we could, and we all do everything we can. Even so, it hurts when we fail."

"And you know what that's like?" Kasumi winced at the edge Shepard's voice had taken. Not that she could blame him; she had no idea what it was like going through what he was dealing with.

"Yes," Rassen replied gently. "I have failed to save people I care about… and I carry them with me as best I can." Kasumi frowned as she noticed his free hand twitch towards the robe he wore over his armour, fingers pressing against something presumably concealed inside it for the briefest of moments before relaxing. "That is all any of us can do, Commander. All a good person can do is help as many others as possible and remember those they could not help."

There was tension to the air now, the atmosphere feeling as though there was a great thunderstorm on the horizon as Shepard struggled to his feet before staring down at the man opposite him, who calmly looked back. "Who are you?" he demanded, voice filled with anger but also curiosity. His eyes moved over to Shaela. "Who are both of you?"

"Like I said, Shep," Kasumi stood up and reached out to gently lay a hand on his shoulder, that same feeling from before returning as he calmed slightly at her touch, "this is a big one."

* * *

Slowly lowering himself back onto the bed, he took a deep breath before looking away from Kasumi and at the room's other male occupant, who continued to stare back at him with the same calm look as before. Shepard didn't get a bad feeling from him necessarily, but something told him the other man was different from anyone he had met in the past. Everybody he had served with, both before Eden Prime and until the end of the war against the Reapers, had felt different from one another on account of who they were, but this was about more than just personality. Rassen felt strange to him, almost like he didn't belong. Shepard really couldn't phrase it any better than that.

"Go on then, kid," he said finally, waving a hand in his direction. "You heard about what happened to me, now it's your turn."

Rassen raised an eyebrow in response. "Kid?" he asked, unable to conceal a small amount of indignation.

"How old are you?" Shepard countered, crossing his arms as he did so. "Early twenties? You're certainly unusual, I'll give you that, but you're still pretty young at the end of the day." He glanced over at the quarian sitting next to the other man. "Your friend is as well."

"You're slipping, Shep," Kasumi's voice caused him to look back at her, noticing with surprise that while she too had sat back down, her hand was still on his shoulder. Following his gaze with her own, the thief swiftly withdrew it and glanced away, but he could have sworn her cheeks had coloured slightly. A confused mixture of emotions welled up as he began to consider all of the possible meanings behind the gesture before he dismissed them. She was probably just trying to offer support, he told himself.

Kasumi turned her gaze back only seconds later, the colouration of her face completely normal. He had probably imagined her blushing. "They're a bit more than friends…" she continued, trailing off at the end. "And I bet you they were doing a lot more than just talking while we were asleep."

"This is getting a bit off topic," the quarian, Shaela, if he remembered correctly, interjected, prompting a quick but grateful look from the man next to her. "We should probably start from the beginning. I'm Shaela'Tole vas Rannoch, originally nar Kilal, and this is Rassen Voratt, Jedi Knight. I grew up on the Migrant Fleet like the rest of my people and had a pretty normal life… until I ended up on Omega during my Pilgrimage."

"Ah," Shepard winced, "not a good place to find yourself, even at the best of times."

"No," Shaela shook her head, causing him to notice she was missing the trademark hood every other quarian woman he had ever met had worn, the thick cables that connected to the back of her helmet on full display. "It was a stupid place to go, but I'd never been outside the Fleet before. I didn't really understand how dangerous the galaxy could be if you weren't ready for it."

She took a deep breath before continuing, voice growing quieter. "One day I found myself being chased by a gang of batarians. I still don't know why they came after me. Maybe they just wanted to hurt me because I was a quarian. One of them threw a metal pipe at me and damaged one of the bones in my ankle. I ran as fast as I could, but they were right behind me."

Her voice returned to its normal volume as she looked at the man next to her. "And then you were there," she said simply, the smile on her face obvious to Shepard despite how he couldn't see it. "You saved me… it wouldn't be the only time."

"No, but then the first time you saved me was only the first of many itself," Rassen said, a smile on his face as well as he looked back at her. Shepard could sense his reluctance as the other man turned his attention away from the quarian, though his smile remained in place. "I am afraid it will take a bit longer to explain everything about myself up to the point Shaela and I met, Commander, so please bear with me. Not everything I say will make sense at first. The most important thing to know about me, is that I am a Jedi. Jedi are…"

* * *

Shepard could only feel his disbelief increasing as Rassen, assisted often by Shaela and less frequently by Kasumi, told him who he was. How he was from a different galaxy to the rest of them. How he and Shaela had met when he had appeared on Omega and eventually fallen in love, finding themselves having to contend with a Sith Lord—the evil opposite of a Jedi—called Zaressh.

Rassen's voice remained strong through most of his account, breaking slightly on a few occasions when mentioning the death of his teacher, someone called Master Dorass, and also when describing how he had left Shaela behind to confront the Sith on his own. Despite his scepticism, Shepard couldn't help smiling when the younger man reached the point he and Shaela had admitted their feelings for one another, the quarian enthusiastically joining in and providing her own memories of the event. The atmosphere in the room immediately soured, however, when they spoke about the final confrontation against Zaressh, and how once he had been defeated he had separated them as his final act.

Then, if it were possible, things seemed to get even more interesting.

As Rassen, visibly requiring more support than before from the quarian next to him, began to explain how he had tried to find a way back from his galaxy to Shepard's own, Shepard noticed Kasumi leaning forwards slightly, eyes intent, the thief every bit as interested as he was. Clearly, she had not been told this part as of yet either. Finally, the Jedi—voice hoarse by now—spoke about how he had finally found a way back, how he had tried and failed to save everyone on Horizon, and how he and Shaela had been reunited, only to agree to help Kasumi rescue him.

"She was very insistent," Rassen explained, "that she was going to head to your location immediately. Given the injury she had sustained on Watchman and the amount of blood she had lost because of it, Shaela and I agreed to go with her. While Kasumi used her tactical cloak, I donned a suit of Mandalorian armour—as you already know—and Shaela supported the two of us from a distance using the base's functioning security cameras. Once we had you we obviously fled, and we are currently on a planet called Venture in the same system as Horizon, like Shaela mentioned." He turned to the quarian. "Did we miss anything?"

"Yep."

Shepard turned to Kasumi as Rassen and Shaela did the same. "You still haven't told us what happened while Shep and I were sleeping, big guy," the thief teased coyly. "Are you sure nothing interesting occurred?"

"No," Shaela replied in Rassen's stead, but much too quickly to be convincing. "We just spoke about what happened between when we were separated and the two of us being reunited after Horizon. Absolutely nothing else happened. Right?" The quarian looked over at Rassen for support.

"Nothing else of interest whatsoever occurred," the Jedi said smoothly, but Shepard caught the slight twinkle in his eye as he looked at the woman next to him, unable to prevent himself from smiling slightly at the couple. Sensing Kasumi was about to open her mouth without even looking over at her, he decided to head her off.

"Leave it, Kasumi. It's their business not ours and they need to sleep anyway."

"You're no fun, Shep," the thief replied, shaking her head sadly. "They're holding out on us. It's obvious."

"It doesn't matter," he muttered, turning his attention back to the couple, frowning at the shadows beneath Rassen's eyes and Shaela's posture. The quarian had started to lean against the Jedi's side, eyes drifting shut as she struggled to stay awake. Internally Shepard felt a small amount of guilt. They had spent hours talking, and while he and Kasumi had at least had some sleep before that, the pair in front of him hadn't exactly been wide-awake when they had begun.

"The two of you should get some sleep," he said. "Kasumi and I will keep an eye out for any sign of the Mandalorians and batarians. Once you've had some rest, then we can talk about making a plan about what to do next."

He looked over at the thief as she stretched out languidly like a cat, meaning it took a conscious effort to keep his eyes staring into her own. "How long do you think we have until they find us?" he asked.

Kasumi's expression was serious as she replied. "I honestly don't know, Shep. A few days maybe? It will take them time to sweep each planet and moon, so it really depends on where they start and how thorough they're going to be. We might have longer than that, but it really depends on how good our luck is."

"We'll have to assume the worst case scenario then." He turned back to the room's other two occupants. "Thank you for telling me everything," he said honestly. "If Kasumi believes you, then I do too. As much as you probably knew that, it still couldn't have been easy."

Rassen nodded tiredly. Shaela didn't reply aside from letting out a quiet noise of acknowledgment. Feeling a little stronger than he had when he had awoken, Shepard slowly rose from the bed, ensuring he could stand before so much as thinking about walking.

Making sure to take each step carefully, well aware of Kasumi's eyes on him as she watched for any sign he might fall, he began to head in the direction of the door the couple had presumably entered from, deciding to give the two of them some space as Rassen began to help Shaela towards one of the room's unclaimed beds.

He motioned for Kasumi to follow him, the thief only doing so after staring at the couple for a few moments, a small grin on her face which hinted she hadn't given up on trying to find out what had happened between them.

 _Good to see she hasn't changed in the slightest._


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: On with the show!**

 **Responses to reviews are as follows:**

 **AnarionRising27: Hey, thanks!**

 **I was a bit worried the previous chapter would end up being a bit of a disappointment, seeing as how the one before it featured such an important moment. I'm glad you really enjoyed it, and the next few should be really interesting given what I have in mind for them.**

 **Chapter 21: Planning**

"Time to wake up, big guy."

Rassen grunted as he blearily opened his eyes. Blinking a few times, he noticed Kasumi standing nearby, a smug look on her face.

"Sorry," the thief shrugged apologetically, "but Shep wants to get things underway. As cute as the two of you are, he does have a point."

 _Two?_

Rassen was suddenly aware that something warm was pressed against his side, a weight also resting on his chest and shoulder. Glancing down, he couldn't help smiling at the sight of Shaela as she continued to sleep, her body partly draped across his own, one of his arms holding her around her shoulders. Even though the familiar glow of her eyes was missing, the Jedi could tell the unconscious quarian's expression mirrored his own.

"Tell Shepard to give us another couple of minutes," he replied, looking back at Kasumi as she nodded once, smug look still in place. After a few moments, she still hadn't moved, causing Rassen to arch an eyebrow at her.

"What?" he finally asked.

"I still want to find out what happened between the two of you," the thief grinned. "We both know a lot more went on than just talking, Ras. You and Shaela were giving each other all kinds of different looks earlier."

"What occurred is none of your concern," Rassen muttered, returning his attention to the still-sleeping woman next to him, whose only movement was the slight rise and fall of her chest as she breathed softly.

"Oh, I'm well aware of that. I just really want to know."

 _Force this woman is stubborn!_

"Maybe I will tell you later," he quietly replied, pretending to give in slightly in the hope the thief would leave and inform Shepard that he and Shaela would be along shortly. Instead, Kasumi made an unconvinced huffing noise that caused him to close his eyes in annoyance. Opening them after a moment, he looked back at her before frowning as he noticed she was now fiddling with her omni-tool.

"What are you doing?" he asked curiously.

Kasumi didn't glance up as she replied, but he got the feeling it was more because she was engrossed in what she was doing than anything else. "I realised earlier it would probably be a good idea to whip up some grenades, if I can find right file, wherever it's got to" she said as though it were the most natural thing in the world. "I haven't found any on the ship, and we are pretty badly outnumbered."

Rassen stared at her. "And you can create explosives using your omni-tool?" he asked in disbelief. "Where are the components?"

Kasumi looked up, an expression of surprise on her hooded features before it was replaced by a look of understanding. "Oh, right. You might not have picked up on it yet, but omni-tools have an in-built fabrication module, Ras. With enough omni-gel, you can make pretty much anything if you have the time. Well, anything within reason."

"What is omni-gel, and where do you get it?" Rassen asked, staring at his wrist in disbelief. He remembered marvelling at the translation capabilities of the device there when he had first acquired one, but never had he guessed it also possessed a function like the one Kasumi was describing. He was so distracted considering all of the different possible uses of the technological marvel that he almost missed the thief's reply.

"I always carry a small amount with me. It was great back in the day, when you could open virtually any door by applying some of it to the lock. I always preferred to do it the old-fashioned way, you know, keep my skills sharp. Still, it was nice to have it as a backup, just in case." Kasumi apparently realised she still hadn't answered his question. "You can convert pretty much anything into omni-gel, but armour and weapons normally make the best choices. It's basically a substance you can turn into anything mechanical provided what you want isn't too big, meaning it's ideal for repairs."

"So if I wanted to make something with my omni-tool, I would just need to acquire a sufficient amount of omni-gel first?" Rassen muttered, thoughts racing.

"Yep," Kasumi nodded. "You can't create anything from scratch, though. You'd need to start with a detailed scan of the thing you wanted to make."

He nodded, trying to supress the surge of excitement he felt as he began to realise the possible implications of his omni-tool's newly revealed ability. "And could I obtain such a scan by using the omni-tool itself?"

Kasumi nodded again. "That's right. Why are you so interested, though? Do you have something in mind?"

Rassen allowed himself a knowing smile. "Tell Shepard that Shaela and I need two more minutes," he repeated. "I will need your help later. You will find out then."

The thief opened her mouth to argue, but she closed it a second later, apparently realising he wasn't going to budge. "Okay, then," Kasumi replied slowly. "I'll give you a hand… but only if you tell me what happened between the two of you."

"Very well," Rassen nodded, feeling a small amount of satisfaction as Kasumi did a double take at how easily he had relented. "If we are able to successfully replicate what I want to replicate, you have my word I will tell you what you want to know."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that," he confirmed.

"Wow," Kasumi managed, stretching out the word. "Now I'm almost as interested in what you want a backup of."

"Like I said, that can wait," he said calmly, finding it difficult to conceal his enjoyment as he saw the thief scowl. "Now, I believe—"

"Yeah, yeah," Kasumi waved a hand, already turning away. "I'll tell Shep to give you another couple of minutes."

Smiling to himself as the thief left the room, Rassen turned his gaze back to the quarian in his arms. She seemed so peaceful as she lay there resting that a part of him hated the idea of waking her. His smile widened, though, as his eyes suddenly picked up on something he hadn't noticed before.

He couldn't feel it on account of where Shaela's hands were, but the quarian was gripping onto him tightly, fingers tensed around the edge of his chestplate as she slept. It might have been years since she had explained it to him, but he remembered it like it was yesterday. The _Palisoi'Jalo_ , or 'Lover's Grip', as it roughly translated, was a state where a sleeping quarian might hold onto someone they loved with such force one could be fooled into thinking they were still awake. Seeing it in action once again only made him more reluctant to wake Shaela.

But they had people waiting on them.

"Shaela," he said quietly, only for her to not so much as stir as she remained sleeping. "Shaela," he tried again, voice closer to its usual volume. Frowning as she still did not so much as shift, Rassen gently nudged her, causing a hitch in the quarian's breathing. Watching her as her eyes slowly opened, he smiled back at her as Shaela's gaze lifted to meet his own, her smaller form still lying partly on top of his as she raised her head from where it had been resting on his shoulder.

And then she sneezed.

"Ah, no," Shaela exclaimed, her normally soft and melodic voice much rougher than normal. "I knew this… knew this…" she trailed off as she sneezed again, this time so violently she jumped slightly off him, causing Rassen to wince as she came back down. Sniffing, the quarian looked back at him, only for a third sneeze to rip through her with the same violence as the previous one, causing him to burst out laughing.

"Stop it," Shaela complained, half-heartedly beating a small fist against his chest, which only caused him to laugh harder. "My nose is so blocked I can't breathe through it and my throat is killing me!"

Rassen was roaring with laughter now as the quarian continued to fume more and more, pulling herself off him with an annoyed grumble before climbing off the bed, crossing her arms, and turning her back. Regaining some control over himself with difficulty, he likewise clambered to his feet and stood up, only for Shaela to move away from him, back still turned.

"I'm sorry," he managed, well aware he certainly didn't sound sorry. "You just… the expression you had when you looked at me… You looked like at me like it was entirely my fault."

"It is your fault," Shaela mumbled, but there was no anger directed at him in her voice, though she certainly sounded frustrated. "I'm sick because of your bacteria. Damn it, why did I take my stupid mask off? I knew this would happen, and I still did it!"

Realising now the quarian was genuinely annoyed at her condition, Rassen walked in front of her before gently lifting her head up so he could stare into her eyes. "I'm sorry," he apologised, actually meaning it this time. "I should be able to help you with that." He began to reach out to the Force, the warm sensation of allowing it to flow through him as comforting as ever. Raising a hand, he almost didn't hear the sound of someone clearing their throat behind him.

"Shep's about to come down here himself to see what the delay is, you two. You should come before he gets too annoyed."

Rassen turned to Kasumi as she shrugged slightly. "We better not delay any further, then," he said reluctantly. He looked back at Shaela. "Can you put up with it for a little while?" As the quarian muttered an affirmative, he once more turned his gaze to the thief. "Why does he keep sending you?" he asked. "What keeps stopping him from coming himself now he can walk again?"

* * *

As he stood in the ship's medium-sized cargo bay surveying the wide variety of differently sized crates before him, Shepard felt a little better knowing they were well-supplied. At the very least, they wouldn't have to worry about food, water, or ammunition being an issue. That being said, he would have gladly traded in more than half of what they had at their disposal for detailed intelligence on their enemies. Not knowing how many there were exactly or how close their nearest units were to their current position didn't sit easily with him.

He glanced up from where he had been checking a crate of thermal clips as Kasumi entered the room, Rassen and Shaela in tow. Giving the three of them a nod, he began to answer the unspoken question he sensed the latter two were about to ask as they looked in surprise at the containers that surrounded them.

"While the two of you were sleeping, Kasumi and I decided to put together a complete inventory of everything on the ship. We have enough food and water so that we don't need to worry. They even have tubes of dextro nutrient paste for some reason."

"Probably the batarians' doing," Kasumi mused as she leaned against a nearby wall. "I wouldn't put it past them to try and sell a few at extortionate prices to some desperate turians or quarians."

Shepard nodded in agreement. "We have plenty of thermal clips as well." He eyed the silver and black cylinder at Rassen's side. "Are you sure that's as useful as you said while you were explaining where you come from?" he asked dubiously.

"I'm certain," the younger man replied. "Are any of these containers full of omni-gel?"

Thrown for a moment at the change of topic, Shepard nonetheless quickly recovered, pointing at a medium-sized box only a metre or so to the Jedi's right. "That one has a small amount inside," he said, frowning as Rassen instantly walked over to the container, the Jedi tilting his head curiously. "I take it you want to repair or make something?" he asked.

"Make something," Rassen confirmed, turning back to face him. "Kasumi has very kindly agreed to help me, given I am more than a little unfamiliar with this particular aspect of omni-tool usage."

"For a reasonable fee," the thief chimed in, her expression causing Shepard to give Rassen a sympathetic look. Whatever he was giving Kasumi in return, she was too enthusiastic about it for it to be anything too simple.

"Rassen?" Everybody turned to look at Shaela as she asked the question only the Jedi knew the answer to. "What do you want to make? You haven't mentioned anything about this before."

Shepard frowned as Rassen deliberately avoided giving the quarian a straight answer. "That would be because I only had the idea just before you woke up," he explained. "It might well not work anyway, so I would like to try and create it first before getting anyone's hopes up."

"Except for mine," Kasumi chirped, the same look of satisfaction on her features as before causing Shepard to feel another pang of sympathy for the room's other male occupant. "Obviously, I'll know before it's complete, whatever it is. Of course, should I not receive the agreed compensation for my time, whatever it is may suddenly and unexpectedly stop working at an unknown point in the future."

"You will get what you want," Rassen muttered, the look of irritation he was unable to disguise telling Shepard instantly that, if anything, the other man deserved even more sympathy from him than he had first expected. With whatever the Jedi had promised Kasumi being almost as intriguing a mystery as what he wanted to create, Shepard's curiosity was beyond piqued now, which also seemed to be same in the case of Shaela, though she too didn't press the issue for the moment.

"We can worry about your project later," he said, indicating the assorted crates that littered the floor of the room. "We might not have a supply problem, but we still need to decide how to proceed. Any thoughts?"

All eyes turned to Kasumi as the thief activated her omni-tool, a screen flashing to life above her wrist as she selected a file. "Mandalore wasn't lying," she said, tone professional, none of her previous light-hearted attitude on display. "Calling for help now they're looking for us would obviously tell them exactly where we are, and they've also definitely cut off all long-range communications." The thief waved everyone closer and began playing a short video clip, causing Shepard's eyes to widen after a few seconds as he realised what he was watching.

Directly in the centre of the screen sat what he recognised to be a comm buoy, the object's main body being roughly spherical, with a number of aerials of different lengths protruding from it in all directions. Scattered at uneven intervals along the device were glowing red lights which signalled the buoy was active, the pinpricks of red rendering it just about visible against the blackness of space.

The buoy grew larger and larger as the ship the camera which had captured the footage was attached to moved closer. As it began to fill just over half of the screen, there was a brilliant flash of bright blue light. Several others followed as a series of shots were fired by the ship, the attack silent on account of the vessel being in space, the projectiles heading directly for the unprotected buoy. As Shepard watched, the communications device was blasted apart, a couple of the aerials being sliced in half before a shot caught the buoy directly in the centre, its spherical body cracking open like an egg before the machine exploded. The footage ended a second later, leaving everyone except Kasumi stunned.

The thief shrugged as she pointed at the still-active screen. "When I was looking for your location inside the base, Shep, I decided to have a look at what else the batarians and Mandalorians have been up to. Remember when Mandalore said she wanted to provoke a response? Wiping out the colony on Horizon and destroying all of the comm buoys nearby gives the Alliance no choice but to investigate why the area has gone dark, but it also leaves them blind, giving her the edge."

"Have they managed to destroy all of the ones in the area yet?" Shaela asked, the quarian still looking at the area above the thief's wrist.

"This was the last one," Kasumi nodded, "but they only managed to hit it a few hours before we escaped. You and I sent out calls for help before then. If they get through in time, then maybe the Alliance ships that turn up to investigate will be on their guard. Communications were bad in this area for days before we all met up, though I didn't know why until we reached their base, but we should have still just about managed to get through. Only—"

"You have no idea how long it will take the messages to actually reach a functioning comm buoy, and from there others that are still intact and finally their destinations," Rassen interrupted. "The Alliance ships that arrive might be aware of the danger and so avoid as many casualties as possible, but that could still be long after we have already been found."

Kasumi nodded silently.

"All right," Shepard muttered. "So while we know someone will at the very least come to investigate, we have no guarantee they'll arrive in time. Is there any chance we could find an opening and make a run for it?"

Kasumi shrugged. "There might be if we knew what kind of patrol and search formations they're using," she explained, "but the only way to find that out would be to activate the same systems we shut down to keep ourselves hidden. It would take a while to monitor their movements for long enough to work out what they're doing, which means they'd find us before we had enough information to work with. Besides, I don't think Mandalore was lying when she said they had locked down the relays. On the bright side, she can only stop us from leaving this system except to go back the way we came, not prevent anyone else from entering from the outside. The relays near this one are still under the control of the same people as they were before the Mandalorians and batarians decided to work together."

"So we don't know when help will arrive and we can't run," Shaela summarised.

"Basically," Kasumi admitted. "Still, they haven't found us yet, and we should still have a while until they do. Hopefully that will be long enough for Alliance ships to arrive, but I'm not willing to bet on it."

"Damn it," Shepard grunted. "There has to be something we can do beyond just sitting here and hoping we don't get found and blown to pieces."

"Actually, there is."

Everyone turned to look at Rassen as he began to explain. "Mandalore wanted to hunt us," the Jedi began. "If she had wanted to simply kill us, we would never have made it this far. Assuming she survived whatever it was you fired at her, trying to destroy the ship with us inside it seems too easy. I doubt she will want to let us off so lightly after you put such a dent in her plans."

"What are you saying?" Shepard asked doubtfully.

"I'm saying that from her perspective things are now much more personal. Mandalorians are not above using torture to get information or against those who cause them enough trouble. Ironically, you blowing up as many as you did may have convinced her to capture us or at the very least kill us herself, rather than simply attacking the ship."

Shepard frowned thoughtfully. "That would mean the Mandalorians and batarians have to overpower us first, assuming Balak goes along with Mandalore. They have numbers, but we still might have a fighting chance of holding them off for a while, since there's only one way onto the ship. " He gave Rassen another doubtful look. "Are you sure she won't just order us to be fired on as soon as they find us?"

"Death is not in and of itself punishment in the eyes of a Mandalorian," Rassen explained. "It is considered honourable to engage and kill a worthy foe. As I said, torture is normally reserved for special cases. It would be the more intelligent course for them to simply blow our ship up, but rage causes people to make mistakes."

The Jedi shrugged before continuing. "If I am right, then we may have several hours longer for help to arrive than we thought… if we can hold out for a while. Since we honestly have no other option than to hope that is the case, we need to prepare first. All of us need to be ready to fight with everything we have at a moment's notice. Speaking of which…" Rassen turned to Kasumi, causing the thief to give him an expectant look.

"Do you need to make it right now?"

"Ideally."

"Okay." Kasumi began to issue a series of commands into her omni-tool, only to stop as Rassen shook his head.

"We should do this in the storage room," he said, causing Shepard to frown in confusion.

The thief, however, didn't seem phased by the request. "Makes no difference to me, let's go." She headed for the door, Rassen behind her, only for the Jedi to turn to face Shaela as the quarian made to follow.

"Rassen, what is it?" Shaela asked, sounding as confused as Shepard felt.

"Just… wait here," the Jedi said after a moment. "Trust me," he added quickly, clearly picking up on the quarian's growing frustration. Without waiting for a reply, he motioned for Kasumi to leave the room, exiting it himself a moment later. Shepard leaned against a stack of crates, taking some of the strain off his still-recovering legs as Shaela turned to face him, radiating awkwardness.

"So," she began, "you're, um, Commander Shepard."

* * *

"All right," Kasumi said as they arrived at the dimly-lit storage room, folding her arms as she looked over at Rassen, who walked past her towards a workbench situated just before the far wall. "What exactly is it you want to make a copy of?"

She frowned as he didn't reply, curiosity getting the better of her as she began to walk over to the Jedi, whose back was turned to her. Before she had taken more than a couple of steps, though, Rassen held out a hand behind him, stopping her in her tracks.

"Give me a moment," he replied, deep voice giving nothing away.

Frown deepening, Kasumi watched in interest as Rassen gently picked up a tool, not that she could see what it was from her current position, before presumably beginning to use it on something he had just placed on the workbench, not that she could see that either. The sound of metal clinking against metal filled the room as the Jedi Knight began to disassemble whatever the mystery object was, causing her to rock back and forth on her heels as she tried to work out what it could be.

"Won't you at least give me a hint?" she asked. "I already know it must be something pretty complicated if it needs to be taken apart; you're only doing that because it's made up of lots of different pieces."

The clinking stopped, there being a moment of silence before there was a quiet clang as whatever Rassen was working on presumably split into two halves. Replacing the tool and picking up another, Kasumi squinted but still couldn't make out what the second one was, he resumed his work, further noises of metal on metal reaching her ears. Curiosity now unbearable, she took another step closer, only to freeze as Rassen's voice stopped her.

"No."

She stuck out her tongue at his back. "You're no fun, Rassy," she sniffed. "I'm going to find out in a second anyway, so why the secrecy?"

The room's other occupant didn't respond for a moment, only doing so when the object he was working on presumably separated again with the same clanging sound as before, although it sounded as though several pieces had separated this time. "Because this is delicate work," he replied slowly, voice giving away his attention was mainly focused on what his hands were doing. "I do not wish to break anything, so please give me another few seconds."

Kasumi began to count inside her head, preparing to make a snarky comment when Rassen no doubt took much longer than he had suggested, only to give a start as he suddenly waved at her to approach, eyes still on the workbench in front of him. As she walked over to stand at his side, the workbench's surface, coloured a light grey, became visible, as did the pieces that now littered it.

Staring at them in confusion, Kasumi attempted to picture what they looked like when they were all connected. Several of the pieces looked as though they sat on top of one another, while others looked like they were contained inside the body of the object itself. Some of the components were completely unfamiliar to her, causing the thief to pay special attention to those ones. One of them in particular caught her eye, drawing a gasp from her as a few seconds of staring at it caused the penny to drop.

 _No way._

* * *

As she followed Kasumi to the storage room, Shaela quickly picked up on the human woman's excitement. She practically bounced as she walked, frequently shooting knowing glances back at the quarian and making no effort to conceal the quiet giggles she let out almost as often. Shaela began to feel a little uncomfortable as she tried to work out whether the other woman's change in attitude was the result of whatever it was she had helped Rassen make or whether she had finally figured out what had occurred between the two of them while she had been sleeping.

"Kasumi," she began, the human's constant looks and noises of amusement finally proving too much, "what's going on?"

"Oh, nothing," the thief replied, waving a hand dismissively. "You'll find out soon enough, Shaela. All good things come to those who wait."

Feeling a stab of irritation at the shorter woman's response, Shaela felt her annoyance only grow as she sneezed violently, prompting yet another giggle from Kasumi. She was about to tell her to stop laughing, only to notice they had reached their destination, Rassen turning and beckoning for her to come over. Frowning slightly, she started to walk over to where he stood, most of the workbench that stood behind him hidden from view.

"I wanted to see if it would actually work before getting your hopes up," he said, tone so serious Shaela for a moment was afraid something bad had happened. "However, if anything, my expectations were exceeded." The Jedi turned his attention to Kasumi, who Shaela now noticed had chosen to linger at the room's entrance rather than following her further in. "Thank you for your help, Kasumi."

"No problem, big guy," she replied, shooting a mock salute his way before turning on her heel and beginning to leave, much to Shaela's surprise. "Good luck you two, and if you decide to celebrate…" she turned around, grin causing the quarian to shift in discomfort as Kasumi let a moment of silence linger, clearly enjoying the sight of her squirming.

"… Then you better keep the door closed."

Cheeks flushed, Shaela opened her mouth to demand just how the thief had found out, only for the other woman to dart through the doorframe before pressing her hand to the haptic interface on the other side, giving an exaggerated wave before the door slid shut, leaving her alone with Rassen. Feeling a small amount of anger, she turned to the Jedi, who at least had the good grace to look a little sheepish.

"You told her," she said accusingly as she continued to make her way over.

"I did," Rassen shrugged. "I would have preferred not to, but I needed her help. Besides, she would have found out eventually, given how persistent she was about knowing."

"Uh huh."

The human if anything looked more embarrassed as she crossed her arms while continuing to glare at him. "She mentioned she was happy for the both of us," Rassen said quietly. "As much as she can be more than a little overbearing, I really do think she meant it, Shaela. She also told me that what we have is special, and that I should never let you go again."

Shaela swallowed, the pain that resulted from her sore throat going ignored as she felt her anger evaporating. "And what did you say to that?" she asked gently, finally reaching him.

"I told her the truth. That I already know how lucky I am and have no intention of leaving you again," the human replied, the conviction in his voice causing her to smile brightly as attempted to look round him. Smiling back at her, Rassen stepped aside, revealing what lay on the workbench.

A large number of small components sat there, none of them immediately familiar. Staring at them carefully, Shaela noticed there was one of each kind of object on each side of the workbench, leaving both sides symmetrical.

No, not quite symmetrical.

On the left-hand side there sat an object which lacked a duplicate on the right. It was small, so small in fact she could have easily held it between her forefinger and thumb. It was coloured a beautiful sapphire blue, the exact same colour as…

 _Keelah!_

"Is this… are you…" she managed, unable to put her thoughts into words. Swallowing heavily, she tried again, pointing at the left-hand side of the workbench. "Is that your lightsaber?" she asked breathlessly.

A small smile appeared on Rassen's face at her reaction. "Yes," he replied. "I assumed I had to take it apart and replicate each component individually instead of trying to copy the whole thing. Besides, one of the trials a Jedi must undergo during the course of their training is to build their own lightsaber."

"Build my own…" Shaela felt faint, and it had nothing to with her being unwell. "I can't, Rassen. I'm not a Jedi. I can't even feel the Force if you're not nearby. I don't… I don't deserve this." She dropped her gaze towards the end, refusing to look at the neatly arranged pieces of metal any longer.

"And why not?"

The quarian looked up to see Rassen staring at her, an intense look in his eyes. "Jedi are supposed to help those in need, especially the innocent, and you did that on your own while I was gone. Jedi also battle the allure of the dark side without giving in. Many fail to resist its influence, but you managed to on Querra. You may not have the normal years of training, Shaela, but you have accomplished so much without it. You have already passed the equivalent of almost every trial. You have the heart of a Jedi and the determination. This is the only barrier left if you want to become one."

"I'm still not sure this is right," Shaela insisted, trying to ignore how the room was spinning around her now.

"Are you worried I am only doing this because of our relationship?"

"Are you?" she asked.

Rassen's smile was gentle as he replied. "No," he said calmly but firmly. "The thought crossed my mind while Kasumi and I were working, but I dismissed it quickly. You deserve this, Shaela, for everything you have accomplished. The decision is yours, however. If you do not want this, then that is your decision. You know I will support you whatever you decide."

"If I do," Shaela began, voice almost a whisper, "will you teach me like before?"

"Do you see another Jedi around here?"

"Rassen!"

"What?" the human asked, small smile turning into a grin before his expression became serious. "A long time has passed since then, Shaela. If you no longer want to learn about the Force or would prefer to—"

"No," Shaela said firmly, stepping closer and taking both of Rassen's hands in her own. "I still want to learn, Rassen. I… I want to become a Jedi, if you are okay with teaching me, I mean."

She gasped as the human pulled her closer, before sighing happily as he embraced her, returning the gesture immediately. As they broke apart, she looked down at the various components, unable to fully ignore the nervousness that began to pool in her stomach. "So, um, how do I…" she trailed off, pointing at the workbench.

"Ah, I cannot help you for the most part," Rassen shrugged in reply. "Each Jedi constructs their own lightsaber. Trust your instincts and there will be no problems. Typically each one has a unique appearance, but unfortunately yours will have to look exactly like mine aside from one difference." He picked up the blue object that had caught her attention earlier, holding it up in front of her. Now it was closer, Shaela could see it was some kind of crystal, the way the light struck its surface highlighting its contours.

Rassen slowly placed the crystal back onto the workbench before moving one of his hands into his robe. Shaela was about to ask what he was doing, only to stare in shock as the human withdrew his hand, opening it to reveal a second crystal, its beautiful emerald colour and its shape causing it to catch the light in the same entrancing way as the first. Speechless, the quarian could only watch as the human placed it on the other side of the workbench to his own crystal.

"Every component on this side," Rassen explained, "is a direct copy of the original, aside from the crystal. Remember when you asked what I found on Zaressh's body, and I said I would tell you later?"

"It belonged to him?" Shaela asked in disgust, glaring at the green crystal as she began to see it in a whole new light.

"No."

Rassen's voice had taken on a sombre tone now, causing her to look at him worriedly. "Do you remember back a few days after we first met, when I explained to you about the first time he and I crossed paths? I told you he defeated me, of course, but also that another Sith killed my… my mentor, Master Dorass. Her lightsaber was damaged beyond repair. Zaressh took its crystal, perhaps as a trophy, or perhaps simply because he could."

Shaela's mouth was dry as she turned to stare at the crystal again. "So this was…"

"Her lightsaber crystal, yes."

"I can't," Shaela shook her head quickly. "I can't accept this, Rassen. Even though we need every advantage we can get, I can't use it. It's not… it's not…" she trailed off as the human placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him.

"She would not have wanted it to simply gather dust locked away somewhere," Rassen said firmly. "She would have liked you, Shaela. Your determination, your intelligence… and your ability to challenge me when I need it. As much as Jedi are not supposed to form romantic entanglements, she would probably have approved of us being together as well, given how you have managed to bring the best out of me."

"I..." Shaela took a deep breath. "Okay," she whispered. "If you're sure this is right."

"I know it is," Rassen whispered just as quietly, leaning closer before kissing her gently on the top of her helmet. "She may be one with the Force now, but I know she approves." The human turned his gaze back to the workbench. "Let me reassemble my lightsaber, and then you can get started on your own. It might be best not to try and activate it until I have had a look at it though; chances are you might not set the crystal properly."

"Can that happen?"

"It often does. That is the part I can assist you with. A Jedi Knight or Master normally checks to ensure the crystal is properly in place once their student has finished."

Turning her back as Rassen quickly put his lightsaber back together, Shaela forced herself to try and keep her breathing even. She was still very nervous, but more than that, she was excited. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't help shifting her weight from one leg to the other and back again, almost jumping a foot in the air as the human ignited his reassembled lightsaber much sooner than she had expected, the snap-hiss the weapon made taking her completely by surprise.

"Sorry," Rassen apologised, although his smirk made it clear he had enjoyed her reaction. "I will wait outside. Take as long as you need and call when you need me to check the crystal's placement." She nodded back at him as he deactivated his lightsaber and began to leave, her nervousness increasing as he reached the door and opened it before stepping through. Maybe this was wrong. Maybe she shouldn't have a lightsaber. It was his teacher's old crystal—

"Shaela."

She looked back over at the doorway to see Rassen standing on the other side, the door itself still very much open. "I love you," the human said simply.

"I love you, too," she replied, smiling widely as her doubts seemed to fade away.

Rassen grinned back at her before pressing his hand to the interface, the door closing between them, but not before his last words reached her.

"May the Force be with you."


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: I can't think of anything important or funny to say, so…**

 **Responses to reviews are as follows:**

 **AnarionRising27: As always, thanks so much for your support. There's plenty of (hopefully) cool stuff to come, it all depends on whether I can nail it or not.**

 **Out of interest, what do you think of this story compared with its predecessor? I personally think this one is much better written (especially from a grammar standpoint) but I'm curious about what you think as a reader.**

 **Guest: In SWTOR the player character has to undergo a series of trials before building their lightsaber. While Shaela may not have trained since childhood, neither did Luke. Given she strives to help others and faced off against a Sith and the lure of the Dark Side, I respectfully disagree with the idea that she hasn't done enough. Shaela isn't the chosen one like Anakin or the (second to) last hope like Luke was.**

 **Chapter 22: Jedi**

"Okay," Shaela muttered, eyes running over each of the components in front of her in turn. "Instincts… What are my instincts telling me?" She looked away from the workbench as she tried to focus. "The interior pieces must go inside before the outer casing is complete," she said slowly, "otherwise there would be no way to get them inside."

Turning back to the large number of parts, the quarian carefully moved each of them that looked as though they went inside, including the crystal, over to the side of the workbench Rassen had left vacant when he had reassembled his own lightsaber. That done, she picked up what she recognised to be the bottom of the hilt of the weapon, a flat disk of steel-coloured metal which fit easily into her palm.

"Right," she continued, feeling more confident in herself by thinking aloud than doing so silently. "Let's say the bottom of the internal mechanism sits on top of this." She gently traced a circular indentation in the middle of the disk with the forefinger of her free hand. "If that's the case, there must be a part which fits this groove." Scanning the side of the workbench she had moved some of the parts to, her eyes brightened when she saw a piece that looked as though it would fit. Picking it up gently, Shaela lowered it onto the disk, smiling to herself when it fit perfectly. So perfectly, in fact, that it didn't look as though it required welding or even needed to be screwed into place.

Shaela blinked in surprise. While it certainly fit exactly, why wouldn't she secure it? After all, the more tightly held together the lightsaber was the better, surely? Her eyes widened as an almost tingling sensation at the back of her mind told her there was no need, that it would be easier to repair the lightsaber if something went wrong with it if she left this part unsecured. Instead, she should make sure the rim of the disk was tightly attached to the section of hilt that was supposed to sit above it and contain the internal component. She frowned. How did she know that?

 _Instincts, it must be._

Gently placing the two attached pieces back onto the workbench, Shaela eagerly began looking for the next component. Finding it after only a few seconds, she began to carefully analyse how best to fit it to what she had already assembled, soon losing track of time as she went about her work.

* * *

With his eyes shut, Rassen took a deep breath, holding it in for several seconds before slowly releasing it. A moment later, he again inhaled deeply, once more ensuring he breathed out only after a substantial pause. Correct breathing was key to effective meditation, and meditation was excellent for clearing one's mind of doubt. In the case of him as a Force user, it also allowed him to focus more easily on the Force while doing so, allowing him to achieve a greater level of clarity than he could reach otherwise.

He was currently kneeling just outside the storage room, close enough to Shaela so he could help her check her lightsaber was ready to use as soon as she was done, but far enough way so he would not distract her with his presence. Meditation was also an excellent way to pass the time when waiting for something, and he had been at it for perhaps only ten minutes when he heard footsteps approaching.

"Hello, Commander," he said, allowing himself to smile as the footsteps abruptly stopped.

"How did you know it was me?" Shepard asked, his footsteps resuming for a moment and continuing to grow louder before they ceased again.

Rassen opened his eyes to find the other man standing only a couple of metres away. "Kasumi's normal footfalls are much less heavy than yours," he replied. "On top of that, she can be completely silent when she chooses to be. I would not put it past her to try and sneak up on me if she were to catch me meditating."

"Point taken," Shepard conceded with a shrug. "I was wondering if you were done building lightsabers with Shaela yet. Kasumi told me what she helped you make."

"Of course she did." Rassen slowly rose to his feet, shaking his limbs out to loosen them. "Building your own lightsaber is one of the trials necessary to become a Jedi. I can help her when it comes to checking she has assembled it properly, but most of the work must be done by her alone. It may take her a while. Even though the components just need to be attached to one another, there is little margin for error."

"I see," Shepard nodded. "I was actually hoping you might be willing to spar with me for a bit. I'm still not entirely fit, but I don't know how out of practise I am exactly. It's been months since I fought anyone, but since I spent that time unconscious and floating in a tank, I'm willing to bet I've lost at least some of my edge." He shrugged. "It seems a good bet that the Mandalorians and batarians will board the ship at some point. Close quarters combat should be a priority."

Rassen couldn't help raising an eyebrow. "Agreed. Shaela only started a short while ago, so I believe I have time. Is there space anywhere for us to practise?"

"There is if we move the crates in the cargo hold."

The Jedi nodded before gesturing for Shepard to lead on. "Then let's go, Commander."

"Shepard."

Rassen blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"Shepard," the darker-haired man repeated. "I don't go around calling you 'Master Voratt' or anything like that. You can call me the same thing as everyone else."

Rassen couldn't help smiling at that. "Very well, Shepard. I would like to be back here for when Shaela needs my help, so we better get moving."

* * *

It only took them a short while to stack each crate up against the walls of the cargo hold, leaving a rectangular area five metres or so wide and about ten long. Rolling his shoulders after he made sure there was no chance of any of the stacks overbalancing, Rassen turned to Shepard, who opened his mouth to speak, only to close it as a thought seemed to cross his mind.

"Give me a couple of minutes," the older man said, walking quickly towards the door. "I've just had an idea."

Frowning as Shepard left him alone, Rassen shrugged before deciding he might as well use the opportunity to warm up, jumping up and down and stretching his arms and legs before rotating his waist. True to his word, Shepard was back within only two minutes or so, causing him to stare in surprise as he realised the commander had donned the same suit of Mandalorian armour he had worn when they had first met, its blue and white plates a stark contrast to the cheap grey clothing the batarians and Mandalorians had given him.

Noticing his surprise, Shepard shrugged before explaining. "I obviously don't have my own armour here, and I'm not used to wearing a set as heavy as this one. I thought it would be a good idea to get some practise in it before having to rely on it in combat."

Unable to fault his logic, Rassen nodded approvingly, situating himself opposite Shepard so they stood the full length of the room apart. "Did you have any rules in mind?" he asked, settling down into a combat stance as he waited for the older man's reply.

Shepard assumed a similar position before edging closer and beginning to circle round to the left, signalling the start of the session. "Light contact," he said calmly. "The last thing we need is for one of us to seriously injure the other right now. No weapons for the moment, and the same goes for omni-tool abilities and your Force. Basically, just hand to hand combat."

Rassen nodded again, flinching as Shepard suddenly lunged forwards, aiming a jab at his chin. Ducking out of the way, he tossed a jab of his own back at the commander, who likewise dodged it easily. This was the part of close quarters combat even those who had only just begun to train in it were familiar with. They were testing one another, trying to see a weakness in the other's form. These first few moments could easily be crucial in a real fight.

As Shepard continued to circle to the left, Rassen began to move in the other direction, maintaining the distance between them as they scanned one another. As the seconds passed, Rassen found himself increasingly impressed. There was no flaw in Shepard's form, each step being perfectly placed and his arms never moving out of position despite his being in a kolto tank as recently as he had. Deciding to take the initiative, Rassen suddenly stopped moving away from the commander and darted towards him, jabbing for a second time before swiftly moving back. Shepard casually raised both of his arms up, blocking the attack easily before following him, moving faster than before.

A minute or so passed, the occasional jab being the only attack either of them threw at the other. Relaxing slightly, Rassen continued to look for any sign of weakness in Shepard's technique as the other man likewise did the same. Increasingly, he began to realise that despite how well he was moving, Shepard was beginning to tire already. The effects of his time in the kolto tank were slowly making themselves known as the commander began to move with slightly less energy than before, though he still kept his hands up as they remained circling one another. Another couple of minutes passed with Shepard continuing to slow, causing Rassen's mind to wander slightly as to whether Shaela had encountered any problems.

He almost didn't see what happened next, but he certainly felt it.

Rassen's head snapped back slightly as Shepard's fist collided with his chin, the impact producing a thudding noise and knocking him off-balance. Grunting in surprise and a small amount of pain, he moved his head back down just in time to see the other man's armoured fist catch him in the stomach, his chestplate absorbing most of the power behind the blow as he stumbled backwards.

Straightening up to see Shepard closing in, Rassen feinted with another jab and lunged out with a kick, catching the commander by surprise and staggering him slightly, the other man's own armour protecting him much like the Jedi's had. Nodding approvingly, Shepard threw a punch in response, causing Rassen to raise both arms in a cross shape, blocking the attack before he was again hit on the chin. They broke apart and resumed circling a second later, Rassen noticing the commander was now moving with the same pace he had displayed at the start of the session.

"Not bad," Shepard acknowledged. "You let yourself get distracted, but you recovered well. I take it they taught you how to handle yourself in the temple you grew up in?"

Rassen frowned. "You know they—"

The air left his lungs as Shepard crashed into him with a surprising amount of strength, the older man placing a leg behind one of Rassen's own and slamming his shoulder into the Jedi's chest. There was a crashing noise, and then a groan of pain he recognised as coming from his own mouth as he found himself staring up at the grey metal of the room's ceiling. As Rassen attempted to get up, an armoured boot pushed down on his chest, preventing him from doing so firmly but not painfully.

Shepard's face appeared above him. "Like I said," the commander began, "not bad. On top of getting distracted, you tend to let your hands drift a little too low, which is why I was able to hit you in the face, if you hadn't guessed. Nice job with the kick, you're certainly fast and strong, but hand to hand isn't something you do too often is it?"

He withdrew his foot and offered Rassen a hand, which the Jedi took, allowing Shepard to pull him to his feet with seemingly no effort. "Not really," Rassen admitted, wincing as his back protested at what it had just gone through. "What happened to light contact only?"

"That was light."

"No, it was not."

"It was," Shepard grinned. "Sorry if I hurt you, but too little contact won't help either of us. When you're actually fighting someone and make a mistake, you pay for it. Everyone needs to be able to take a hit and keep on going afterwards, which you managed."

Rassen nodded slowly. "I will bear that in mind," he replied. "In the future, however, I would prefer that you be more honest about what constitutes 'light' for you, since your definition seems different to my own."

"No problem," the commander shrugged. "I would ask if you want to go again, but you better get back to Shaela before she finishes. I'd like to practise with you again later, though, as long as you're willing."

Rassen smirked despite his best efforts not to. "And why not spar with Kasumi?" he asked as innocently as he could. "You know her much better than you do me, and she can be extremely fast when she wants to be. Would she not make as good an opponent? After all, she is certainly tough as thieves go."

He watched carefully as Shepard's eyes narrowed, the other man giving away no other indication he was uncomfortable. "You're closer to the same size as a Mandalorian or batarian than she is," he said finally. "I'd like to get as close as possible to fighting the real thing before time runs out."

"Of course," Rassen nodded, still trying very hard to hide his smirk as it threatened to grow. "Thank you for your advice regarding my shortcomings, C—" he cut himself off. "Shepard. I will take you up on that offer. But like you said, I need to get back to Shaela, she should be almost done by now." Beginning to turn on his heel, he suddenly thought better of it, extending a hand to Shepard, who gripped it with one of his own before shaking it with a confused expression.

"Thank you," Rassen said again, "but considering we might all be dead in a few days, may I offer you some advice of my own?"

"Sure."

"Tell her," he said seriously, releasing Shepard's hand. "I did not tell Shaela how I felt about her until I realised she was trying to tell me how she felt, but you might not get as good an opportunity, considering how little time we have. Tell Kasumi how you feel before it might be too late."

For the first time since he had met him, Rassen witnessed Shepard dumbstruck. He had seen the commander angry when he had asked what the Jedi knew of loss. He had seen him deeply saddened when his fears of the cost of stopping the Reapers had been confirmed. And he had seen him filled with cold determination when he had stared down a small army of Mandalorians and batarians before firing upon them. Never, though, had Rassen seen Shepard lost for words in the short time he had known him.

"How do you know about that?" Shepard finally managed, staring at him in shock.

Rassen shrugged. "Even though she had lost a substantial amount of blood, she was still willing to race off on her own if necessary to find and rescue you. When we did find you, she requested a private moment despite how we could have been detected at any time. When you went to sleep, she decided to sleep in a chair next to your bed instead of a bed of her own. She may not have said it, but her feelings are obvious… even to someone who grew up in a temple in another galaxy. The same goes for you. Pushing her away from me when you thought I was a Mandalorian, how worried you were that you might have hurt her… You get the idea."

"It's… complicated," Shepard replied, still looking at the Jedi as though he had materialised out of nothingness. "There's a lot you don't know, Rassen."

"Anything you would like to share?" he asked gently.

"No offence, but no. I know I've already told you about what happened with the Reapers—"

"But you have not known me long enough to discuss something as deeply personal as this," Rassen finished. "Talk to Kasumi, Shepard. I may have only known her for a short while longer than I have known you, but I doubt she will be the one to begin any kind of conversation on the subject. If it makes it any easier, you have faced down machines billions of years old bent on galaxy-wide extermination. This should be easy, comparatively speaking."

Giving the other man an encouraging nod, Rassen turned and left him standing there in thought, unable to stop his own mind from racing as he began to make his way back to Shaela, the door to the cargo hold closing behind him. Why was he interfering? He had only shared a few conversations with Shepard, and not many more with Kasumi. Why was he so interested in trying to resolve the obvious tension between them?

 _Because their situation reminds you of what your own once was, Rassen._

Zaressh's voice, having been silent for so long, caused him to stumble and then crash into a nearby wall. Glancing behind him, Rassen noticed with relief that he had already left Shepard far enough behind that the other man hadn't heard the noise and so would not come to investigate. Shaking his head as though that would somehow mute the voice, he straightened up with difficulty before continuing the short trek to the storage room, managing to avoid stumbling for a second time as Zaressh spoke again.

 _Do you remember what happened soon after you and the quarian admitted your feelings for one another? Of course you do, you found yourselves separated, remember? A terrible tragedy, was it not? The situation being so similar, I do hope nothing unfortunate befalls your new friends… or your little alien lover._

Ignoring the voice as best he could, Rassen kept going.

* * *

Trembling slightly, Shaela lifted the black and steel-coloured cylinder to eye level, turning it carefully as she examined it for any sign she had got anything wrong. After a few moments, she was satisfied the lightsaber hilt was completely identical to Rassen's, though that was not what caused her to place it back on the workbench. No, it wasn't that she could see it was finished that was important; she could feel it was done as well.

The quarian began to pace excitedly around the room, too filled with anticipation to remain still. She was extremely tempted to activate the device right away, but she remembered Rassen's words. He needed to inspect the lightsaber first to ensure nothing was amiss.

Realising he was still waiting outside, Shaela hurried to the door, opening it as quickly as she could to reveal the Jedi Knight kneeling a few feet away with his back to her as he meditated. Coughing once to get his attention, the quarian couldn't help grinning as the human turned to face her, his blue eyes that were both so similar and yet so different to her silver ones widening slightly. Any thought of why he might be shocked at her arrival was quickly brushed aside as she waved for him to follow her.

"I think," she took a deep breath, her blocked nose annoying but easy to ignore given the circumstances. "I think I'm done, Rassen."

Wordlessly, but with a smile replacing his previous look of alarm, he followed her as she returned to the workbench at almost a run and scooped up the lightsaber before holding it out to him. Rassen took it and gently rotated the device with both of his hands, frowning as he surveyed it critically. Shaela felt her heart sink a little as the seconds mounted, beginning to fear she had done something wrong. She opened her mouth to ask if she had, only for the human to speak first.

"The crystal definitely has not been set properly," Rassen shrugged. "Other than that, though, you did a very good job, Shaela."

She was beaming now. "Thank you, Rassen. I wasn't sure where to start at first, but then I tried to think logically about what I was doing and used my instincts like you said." She looked at the cylinder he still held. "How, um, long will it take to fix the crystal problem?"

"Not too long," the human replied, already placing the lightsaber onto the workbench with one hand while reaching for a tool with the other. Shaela felt a stab of concern as he winced almost imperceptibly, Rassen not quite able to conceal the slight tightening of his jaw well enough to hide the fact he was in a small amount of pain.

"Rassen," she began slowly, noticing a brief pause in his movement at her tone just before his fingertips reached the tool he wanted, "are you okay?"

"I'm fine," the human replied, picking up what closely resembled a pair of pliers before bringing them into contact with the lightsaber. "Just a little sore, but it is nothing to be concerned about."

"Rassen…"

She felt more than a small amount of frustration as he let out a quiet sigh. "Shepard approached me while you were working," he explained. "He wanted to see how far from his best he is since he spent so long in a kolto tank. He suggested sparring, and I agreed on the condition I be back just before you finished."

While she felt a small amount of happiness that Rassen had made a point of being available when she needed him, the sensation was far outweighed by her concern. "You actually agreed to fight Commander Shepard?" she gasped. "Rassen, he could have seriously hurt you!"

"It was only sparring, Shaela. While it is true Shepard was a bit… rougher than I was expecting, it was a good experience. We have agreed to do it again soon so he can return to the same level he was in hand-to-hand combat before his injuries. It will be good for me as well. I can certainly learn a lot from him in that regard."

Calming down slightly, Shaela ran her eyes over the human as he removed the bottom of the lightsaber and then got to work on one of its sides. "It's strange to think of you needing training," she admitted.

Rassen smiled ruefully, gaze leaving his work to focus on her. "I have lost a number of fights in my time… including a few since we met, if you remember."

"True," Shaela acknowledged, interest growing as she wondered what exactly she had missed. "What happened, then?"

She had to stifle a laugh as Rassen suddenly looked a little embarrassed. "At first," he muttered reluctantly, "we each tried to look for a weakness we could exploit. Then he hit me a couple of times."

"That's it?" she asked incredulously.

"No," Rassen shook his head. "I managed to kick him before the session ended."

"Oh. Well, at least you got the last—"

"And then he charged me, took my legs out, and pinned me to the floor."

Shaela felt her shoulders tremble as she forced herself to take deep, calming breaths. Rassen was clearly a little sore about losing so easily. Laughing at him wouldn't help matters. She should be supportive, tell him he would be ready next time.

Then she remembered she was sick and he hadn't held back from laughing at her just after they had woken up.

"Stop that," Rassen snapped, but he was unable to keep the corner of his mouth from twitching as she burst out giggling, both hands over her mouthpiece. That he seemed to find it funny on some level as well only made her laugh harder, the quarian unable to contain herself as her sounds of mirth grew, Shaela now laughing hysterically as she sank to her knees. Looking up as her eyes began to fill with tears and her vision swam, she somehow managed to laugh even harder as she saw Rassen's struggle to contain his own amusement intensify.

At some point, she became vaguely aware of the human resuming his work on the lightsaber, barely noticing she was still laughing so hard. Her laughter abruptly stopped, however, as Rassen replaced his current tool with a new one, the gentle sound of metal bumping against metal reaching her ears as he began reattaching the pieces he had removed. The new tool was then replaced itself by another, the sounds of metal on metal continuing for a few moments before ceasing.

Standing up shakily, Shaela swallowed nervously as the human offered her the reassembled but still deactivated weapon with one hand. "That should have fixed it," he explained gently. "If not I can try again, but the best way to check now is to try it out."

Wordlessly, she reached out with a trembling hand, carefully lifting the lightsaber out of Rassen's own before placing her other hand below the first, not trusting herself not to drop it. Glancing back at him only to receive a reassuring nod, Shaela took a deep breath, thumb brushing the surface of the activation switch midway up the device's side. Swallowing again, she gently pressed the button.

With what was by now a very familiar hissing noise, a blade of emerald light sprang forth, humming in a way that was both intimidating and comforting, the noise shifting slightly in response to her movements. Throat dry, Shaela could almost feel the bright green glow as it reflected off the nearly opaque material of her mask, combining with the light blue to make her visor seem almost turquoise as carefully manoeuvred the lightsaber from side to side, marvelling at it. She looked back at Rassen as he spoke quietly but firmly from where he stood next to her, clearly reluctant to ruin her sense of wonder but unable to keep silent.

"Lightsabers can be almost as dangerous to the user as the people around them during the early days of training. While the ability to use one is in part something most any Force user with any real potential possesses, it still takes practise to become familiar with it. Given the blade is weightless, it can feel off-putting to hold one, since a sword or staff has its weight distributed across a much larger area."

Shaela nodded in understanding. "We don't have much time," she replied. "If we want to avoid me cutting one of my own arms off, we need to start practising as soon as possible, right?"

Rassen nodded back, albeit reluctantly. "Practising with proper lightsabers is risky, but we have little alternative. I do not have a training lightsaber I could replicate, which while poor substitutes for the real thing, are far less dangerous. We will just have to be as careful as possible."

"I understand," she muttered softly. "When do we begin?"

The human gave her a small smile, which she instantly returned. "Immediately," he replied.


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N: Another chapter is ready, so here we go.**

 **Responses to reviews are as follows:**

 **AnarionRising27: Ha, glad you liked it! We still have a way to go yet, but there's always time for more character interaction. Where is all of this going, though? :)**

 **Chapter 23: Training**

With the crates still stacked up against the walls from earlier, Rassen was satisfied there was enough room in the cargo hold for their needs. Upon entering, he walked over to the far end of the room and turned around, gesturing for Shaela to take up a position opposite him, which she did. Drawing the lightsaber at his side, Rassen ignited it, its sapphire blade bursting into existence. Shaela's emerald blade joined it a second later.

"We should start," he began, "right at the beginning. The first thing to understand about lightsaber use is that there are many different forms a Jedi or Sith can use, all with their own advantages and disadvantages. The more forms you know, the better prepared you are for every eventuality." As Shaela nodded in understanding, he continued. "The best of these forms to start with is the simplest one. Shii-Cho may be the most basic style, but if in doubt about which one to use, many consider it the best choice to go with."

Rassen slowly raised his lightsaber over his head before bringing it down in a vertical slash, taking his time so Shaela could easily follow his movements with her eyes. "Despite how many choose to move on to more advanced styles, aspects of Shii-Cho often persist in an individual's technique, given its reliability." He repeated the overhead slash again before gesturing for Shaela to try it for herself. Hesitantly, the quarian carefully raised her lightsaber before gradually bringing it down.

"Try not to look at what you are doing," Rassen said, noticing how Shaela's eyes had remained glued to her weapon throughout the entire move. "Imagine you have an enemy standing right in front of you. Your attention should always be on them and the rest of your surroundings."

Shaela repeated the technique, but he could see how difficult it was for her not to look at her lightsaber as she did so. Shaking his head slightly, he walked over to the quarian as she let out a noise of frustration. "I know what I said about a lightsaber being nearly as dangerous to the untrained as an enemy, Shaela," Rassen said gently. "But you need to trust yourself. You will not hurt yourself with it as long as you concentrate."

The quarian nodded. "It just feels really… really strange," she admitted. "To hold something as dangerous as this but having to try not to look at it, I mean."

Rassen smiled understandingly. "Perhaps this would be a little easier if you had a real target." He stepped back, leaving a small gap between them. "Now try," he said.

He could feel her reluctance as she stared at him in surprise, could tell instantly she was worried she would hurt him. "I will be fine, Shaela," he said soothingly. "Now, slowly attack me and keep your eyes looking into my own."

The quarian raised her lightsaber once more before carefully bringing it down towards him. Rassen responded just as slowly, intercepting the vertical strike with a horizontal block just above his head, the resulting clashing sound of lightsaber against lightsaber blocking out the constant humming noise of both for a moment. He smiled again as he noticed Shaela's gaze had remained fixed on him, having never so much as darted in the direction of her weapon. His smile grew as the quarian blinked in surprise before grinning back at him.

"Much better," Rassen nodded. "Now try and do it a little quicker."

"Am I interrupting?"

He turned to look as the door shut behind Kasumi. While he wasn't surprised he had failed to hear her footsteps, how she had managed to open the door without either of them noticing caused him to stare at her in disbelief for a moment. Rassen's attention returned to Shaela as the quarian addressed the newcomer, her voice friendly.

"What is it, Kasumi?" she asked.

The thief shrugged, "I'm bored."

Whatever reply he had been expecting, Rassen could honestly say it hadn't been that. "We will almost certainly be found and attacked in the next few days," he said slowly. "And you are bored?"

"Okay, maybe not bored," Kasumi admitted, "but I'm… restless. This whole calm before the storm thing doesn't feel right. Being stuck in one place just isn't me."

"So you came to us looking for what exactly?"

"Something interesting, obviously," the thief replied. "Besides, I wanted to find out if Shep was telling the truth. I've never known him to lie when it's not necessary, but I wanted to hear it from you as well."

"Hear what?"

"Well, the way he tells it, you and the floor in here got to know each other a little better," Kasumi smirked, eyes flicking over to Shaela and winking at her as Rassen heard the quarian giggle, though she abruptly cut herself off when he looked in her direction. Turning his gaze back to the thief, he tried his best to appear composed as he answered her.

"Shepard is telling the truth, he did beat me."

"Hah! I knew he probably would if the two of you decided to go at each other," Kasumi grinned. "Don't feel too bad, Ras. You really went to town on those commandoes on Watchman, but Shep's the best there is. No shame in losing to him."

"I never said there was." He turned back to Shaela and their still-locked blades. "If you wish, you can stay and watch if Shaela has no issue with it." The quarian shook her head, causing him to glance back at the thief. "Will that keep you out of trouble?"

"Probably not, but it's something," Kasumi replied, lifting a crate off the top of one of the stacks before sitting down on it and leaning forwards eagerly. Rassen opened his mouth to object when he saw a warning label with a picture of an explosion on it on the side of the container, only to close it when the thief lazily winked at him. Shaking his head, he took a moment to remember where they had been before she arrived and glanced back at Shaela.

"Again, but a bit quicker this time."

* * *

It quickly became apparent that watching Rassen teach Shaela would be much more interesting than she had first expected.

After a few minutes of them practising the same overhead attack they had been when she had entered, they had moved on to a simple block—the same one Rassen had used while Shaela had swung at him—the human now performing the occasional strike while the quarian attempted to replicate the horizontal block. Seeing two glowing energy blades collide with each other over and over again was fun, sure, but Kasumi found that what was occurring between the couple was far more interesting, though much more subtle.

Each time she attempted to copy a move Rassen had shown her, Shaela was slightly better at it than the previous time she had tried to perform the technique. Her stance might be fractionally closer to the Jedi Knight's own, or her arms more correctly positioned, or the quarian might simply execute it faster. The improvement each time was slight, but it was still there and still visible.

As the minutes passed, Kasumi stared in disbelief, trying to work out just how it was possible for Shaela to learn so quickly. Rassen was certainly being vocal about what she was doing wrong, offering plenty of encouraging words and also praise when the quarian invariably improved, and Shaela herself was definitely receptive as she listened and adjusted herself accordingly. Even so, it was only after half an hour of continuing to watch that she finally realised just what was happening.

Thinking back to Rassen and Shaela's explanation about themselves, Kasumi remembered when they had spoken about how the former had given the latter a few basic lessons about the Force on Omega. The… bond, or whatever they had called it, had enabled the quarian to learn at an astonishing pace, given that as well as simply being taught, she was also subconsciously drawing on the Jedi Knight's knowledge thanks to their connection.

Shaela's improvements became even more noticeable as Kasumi reached the conclusion the same thing was happening again when the two of them finished going over a horizontal slash and moved on to a corresponding block. When they were done with that, Rassen called for a brief halt, only for his next words to cause her interest to reach its highest point yet.

"Fantastic work so far, Shaela," he smiled, drawing an even wider one from the quarian. "While we have only covered a small number of techniques, we have enough for the moment to begin sparring freely, if you are comfortable with the idea."

Shaela thought for a moment before nodding, radiating excitement as Rassen backed away from her and she did the same, leaving them opposite one another the full length of the room apart. Kasumi couldn't help a small smile at the quarian's enthusiasm. After how unsure and nervous she had been during their conversation about Rassen while the thief had infiltrated what remained of Aratoht, it was good to see she looked a lot more content now.

Rassen did as well as Kasumi turned her attention to him, both the human and the quarian only having eyes for each other as the session continued. To be honest, by this point it was as though they had both forgotten she was still in the room. That didn't stop Kasumi from leaning even further forwards on the crate than she had been already, now perched right on its edge as she waited to see what would happen next, however.

Rassen attacked first, closing the gap between himself and Shaela before bringing his lightsaber down in the first move he had taught her, moving more quickly than he had previously, though he was still clearly holding back. The quarian raised her emerald blade into the path of the sapphire one humming towards her, positioning one leg behind her and leaning most of her weight onto the front one. As blue met green, the what was by now familiar sound of clashing lightsabers filled the room.

Rassen broke the lock, only for Shaela to attack now, swinging her weapon in a horizontal strike the more experienced human had no difficulty whatsoever in blocking. The quarian followed up with the same overhead blow he had just used, only for Rassen to intercept it just as easily as he had her first attack. Shaela began to alternate between the two striking techniques she had learned, sometimes using the same one repeatedly and other times switching back and forth as she advanced a step with each blow, quickly forcing Rassen to back away as she began to speed up.

Kasumi frowned as Rassen made no effort to counterattack, seemingly content to continue to give ground. Before long, the Jedi Knight's back was only a few inches from the wall behind him, at which point he ducked under a horizontal swing and darted around Shaela, leaving her staring in surprise at the spot where he had just been. Kasumi rolled her eyes as the quarian started to playfully accuse him of cheating while he only shrugged in response.

"Look, big guy," she called, causing both of them to turn their attention to her. "That was flashy, but stop showing off. She only knows four moves."

"Be that as it may," Rassen replied, "I said we had covered enough for a practise duel to be possible, not that I would stick to only those four myself." She watched in interest as he turned back to Shaela. "A lightsaber duel is much like a fight involving firearms, swords, or even hand-to-hand combat. Your opponent will do everything they can think of that will increase their chance of winning. As far as the real thing goes, there is no such thing as cheating."

Shaela nodded slowly before letting out a quiet cough and readying herself. "Should we keep going?" she asked, tone making it clear she very much wanted to. Rassen didn't reply verbally, simple twirling his lightsaber and waiting for the quarian to come to him, causing Kasumi to roll her eyes again.

 _Show off._

Rassen attacked as soon as Shaela was in range, going on the offensive with an overhead blow, a sideways one, and then a second overhead attack. He was still holding back, Kasumi noticed, but given they had been picking up speed ever since the quarian had seized the initiative, Rassen was not exactly moving slowly as he began to force Shaela back.

The quarian easily blocked the first three blows as she had been taught, form rough but much better than it had been when Kasumi had first started watching the two of them. As she continued to weather the attacks being thrown at her, though, Shaela soon coughed again, more loudly this time. Another cough followed soon after as she continued to block, causing Rassen to pause mid-swing before deactivating his lightsaber, a look of concern on his face.

"It's… I'm fine," the quarian managed, voice breaking in the middle as she let out her loudest cough yet. Shaela raised her emerald blade again, only to nearly drop it as she sneezed so violently that Kasumi slipped off her crate in surprise, landing hard on her backside. Wincing as the area protested at the hard surface of the metal floor, the thief paid it as little mind as she could as Rassen quickly but gently took the lightsaber from Shaela before switching it off, his expression regretful.

"I'm sorry, Shaela. With the excitement of you building your own lightsaber, I almost forgot you were sick."

Despite her condition, the quarian shook her head firmly. "It's not your fault, Rassen. I forgot as well for a moment." She sneezed again. "Could you… I mean, if you don't mind."

"Of course." Rassen handed Shaela's lightsaber back to her before raising his now free hand, keeping it flat at the same level as her heart as he closed his eyes. Despite having experienced the effects of Force healing first-hand, Kasumi's attention was entirely focused on the couple as perhaps half a minute or so of silence passed. The period of quiet ended when the quarian coughed again, which caused Rassen's eyes to snap open, an expression of serious concern on his face as well as considerable disbelief.

"I don't understand," he managed. "You are clearly unwell, but while I can sense you are, I cannot heal you. It… it feels strange, Shaela, almost as though you are both sick and not sick at the same time." Rassen closed his eyes and tried again, Kasumi furrowing her brow when he opened them once more, expression still one of frustration.

"No luck?" she asked, getting up from the floor to walk over to the two of them. "I know you can fix broken bones and heal cuts, but is sickness something that's more difficult for you?"

Rassen was shaking his head before she had even finished. "Healing something as simple as a cold is easy," he explained. "A life-threatening illness would be far more difficult, but Shaela does not have that." He turned back to the quarian. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

Shaela took a moment to reply as she considered the question. "I'm… feeling a bit off," she admitted, "but not too bad. I still have a sore throat and a blocked nose, but I don't think I've got worse or anything. We were luckier than we could have been, the reaction wasn't as bad as I worried it might be."

"Aha!" Kasumi snapped her fingers, causing the other two to look at her. "I think I get it. Back when Shep and I were going up against the Collectors, I remember chatting to Tali about her immune system at one point. She said that when a quarian is exposed to bacteria or other microbes, it tends to result in something closer to an allergic reaction than an actual illness, since your people can't technically get sick from levo-based pathogens, Shaela."

The quarian's eyes widened. "That makes sense," she gasped. "Rassen, when you use the Force to heal people, how does it work exactly?"

The Jedi Knight frowned as he began to grasp what they were getting at. "When I fixed your ankle, Shaela, or healed your wound, Kasumi, I used the Force to accelerate the natural healing process of each of your bodies, made it more efficient. Force healing results in less scarring than relying purely on the body to repair itself with no outside help does, but it is essentially a way of speeding up what it already happening, rather than doing anything truly new."

"So," Kasumi said, hands moving about as she spoke, "curing an allergy or something similar wouldn't be possible for you, then? I mean, if anything you'd be working against the body to remove it, since it's a part of someone they either had since they were born or developed later on naturally."

"I…" Rassen trailed off in thought. "Yes, that would make sense. If Shaela's condition is the result of something very close to an allergic reaction, it would make sense that I would be unable to heal her, since I would not be enhancing her body's natural means of repairing itself." He stepped closer to the quarian, leaving them only a few inches away from one another as he took her free hand in his own. "I'm sorry," Rassen whispered. "I thought… I did not realise—"

Kasumi swallowed heavily as Shaela removed her hand from Rassen's before placing one of her fingers over his lips. "I didn't either," she said soothingly. "It's not your fault, Rassen. I should be fine soon enough anyway." She coughed again, covering her mouthpiece despite how there was no need. "I'll probably be a bit better tomorrow. Maybe we could continue then?"

As Rassen attached his lightsaber to his belt and pulled the quarian into an embrace, Kasumi began to feel unsteady. The scene in front of her was very familiar, and it was bringing back memories she didn't want to think about right now. "Of course," the Jedi replied. "You did brilliantly today, Shaela. You have more than earned some rest."

 _I don't know how you managed that, but you're one amazing woman._

 _How amazing?_

 _Amazing enough that I fell in love with you._

She was beginning to hyperventilate. Keiji's voice was too real. It was like he was right next to her. Her mind was swimming with memories of the last job they had finished together. The last job before Hock—

Kasumi staggered away from the couple in front of her, causing them to look at her in concern. "I… I should go," she managed. "Shep… he might need help with… with whatever he's doing." She barely heard Shaela call out to her as she opened the door and ran out of the cargo hold, only just able to see where she was going her mind was so overwhelmed.

* * *

Shepard wiped his forehead before allowing himself a small smile of satisfaction. He was still a long way from being done, but he had made a lot of progress already.

He was currently sitting in the storage room where Shaela had built her lightsaber, which Kasumi had told him about, having moved a chair from the bunkroom before placing it down just in front of the workbench. He had been there for a while, a quick glance at his omni-tool told him the best part of two hours, but although his neck ached from pouring over the device and the workbench, he was still pleased with what he had accomplished so far.

In front of him, stacked neatly on top of one another on the right-hand side of the workbench, sat a small pile of steel-coloured disks. They were each the size of a small plate, and were the result of the omni-gel Rassen and Kasumi had left in the room as well as some more Shepard had produced by breaking down a couple of spare sets of Mandalorian armour he had found. Neither had looked as though they would fit either him or Rassen, Shaela had the wrong body shape on account of her being a quarian, and Kasumi would never sacrifice mobility and stealth for sheer protection. As a result, he had decided to put the suits to some use given they would otherwise have remained ignored.

They couldn't run, that had been established. Either the Mandalorians and batarians would wait for them to run out of fuel and so be forced to land… or they would get bored of following them and simply shoot them down. Even though Rassen seemed convinced that every effort would be made to take them alive, Shepard wasn't willing to take the risk it wouldn't be deemed easier to shoot them down and see if they survived if they attempted to escape. Despite that, he agreed their best option, although it didn't sit well with him, was to stay put and hold out for as long as possible when they were discovered. If they were overwhelmed, as they might well be, then he would insist on them trying to escape. A near zero chance of success was better than zero, after all.

For the moment, though, he needed to keep producing as many of the disks as he could, although his omni-tool could only work so quickly. They might well prove vital given their current situation.

He turned around as he heard a quiet cough behind him, the kind that was unmistakably that of someone trying to get his attention. The culprit, who had managed to get as close as a couple of metres to him before deciding to announce her presence, gave him a smile that seemed a little forced before approaching, the awkward expression giving way to genuine interest as she stared at the objects on the workbench before letting out a low whistle.

"Proximity mines, Shep? I didn't think that was your style."

He glanced at them before looking back at Kasumi. "There's only one way to attack us given our location. They'll have to come directly through the valley itself, on foot as well, considering they want us alive if at all possible. Mines seem like a good way to thin their numbers as well as buy us time."

Kasumi nodded appreciatively. "Good call. Either they charge through one they realise there's a minefield and take massive losses, or they slowly try and find their way through. Sneaky. What gave you the idea?"

"Personal experience." When the thief gave him an interested look, he began to elaborate.

"I think I told you this a long time ago, but back on the first Normandy when we were going after Saren, we found ourselves having to stop an asteroid from crashing into a colony world called Terra Nova. That was where I first encountered Balak, and he and the other batarians he was with had set up proximity mines in an attempt to prevent anybody from disabling the three fusion torches they were using to control the asteroid. Mines might be ancient as far as military technology goes, but they were a real headache to get past. Like you said, the best case scenario is they kill a lot of Mandalorians and batarians. The worst is they just buy us time, but—"

"We need as much time as we can get," Kasumi finished.

"Exactly."

The thief pointed at the pile of inactive mines. "Do you want some help?" she asked, causing Shepard to frown as he noticed the forced smile had returned. Realising he was staring and Kasumi was beginning to look a little uncomfortable, he rose from his chair before gesturing for her to take it, which she did.

"Sorry, I've been at it for a while," he apologised. "I'll go and get another chair. See you in a couple of minutes."

"See you," the thief replied without even glancing at him, attention already glued to her omni-tool as she activated it. Shaking his head slightly as he began to wonder just what was wrong with her, Shepard left the room, noticing with approval that he was walking at almost his normal pace without difficulty.

* * *

The door to the bunkroom soon came into view before sliding open to reveal that one of the beds was currently occupied. Making his way to the nearest chair as quietly as he could, Shepard jumped back as the lone figure rolled over before letting out a cry of shock, a blade of bright green energy hissing to life from the cylinder they had just grabbed from their side as they lurched to their feet.

Thinking quickly, he moved backwards a step, raising both hands to show he meant no harm. "Shaela, it's me," he said as calmly as he could considering the wild look in the quarian's eyes. Realisation hit as her gaze moved from where it had been focused on his chestplate to his face, causing him to silently curse. He had explained to Rassen about his choice to wear a suit of Mandalorian armour, and Kasumi had obviously seen it was him as she had approached. Shaela, in contrast, had just turned over to find what she clearly thought was a Mandalorian bearing down on her.

The quarian took deep, ragged breaths before coughing. "Keelah, don't do that!" she gasped shakily. "I thought you were, you know, one of them."

"I'm sorry," Shepard replied, genuinely meaning it. "This is the only armour we have that fits me, but I should have realised something like this could happen."

"It's… it's okay," Shaela muttered, one hand over her heart as her breathing slowed. "It's just that I was almost asleep, so seeing you dressed like that was pretty scary for a moment."

He nodded understandingly, but the tension didn't evaporate. It wasn't just the result of the last few moments, though. After all, it had only been a short while ago that Kasumi and Rassen had left the two of them alone with each other, and the quarian had clearly been uncomfortable with the situation. He could hardly blame her.

After all, while he had never considered himself such, he was well aware most of the galaxy saw him as a hero. While it had taken the efforts of both his crew and countless others to stop the Reapers, he was aware that in the eyes of many he was chiefly responsible. That unwanted fame had dogged him to an extent even before Saren had been defeated, and it had only grown since then, leaving him quite possibly the most easily recognised individual in the galaxy by now. Kasumi, well, she knew him, so no awkwardness there. As for Rassen, he didn't seem particularly bothered by who Shepard was, seeing as how he came from a different galaxy.

Shaela had probably never even expected to meet him, let alone find herself having to hide out on the same ship as him. The two of them had ended up waiting in awkward silence for the most part while Kasumi and Rassen had been producing lightsaber components, meaning it had been a relief for the both of them when the thief had cheerfully reappeared before telling the quarian to follow her.

"I'm sorry," he said again before remembering why he had come and picking up the nearest chair. Seeing Shaela look at him quizzically, he began to explain. "I've been working on some proximity mines. Kasumi wants to help, but I only moved one chair down there earlier."

The quarian's silver eyes widened slightly in understanding. "Ah, okay," she nodded, tone carrying a trace of something he couldn't identify. "You probably shouldn't keep her waiting. I don't know if Kasumi told you, but I'm a bit unwell and need to try and get some sleep anyway, so I won't take up any more of your time, Commander."

"Shepard," he replied. "I explained to Rassen earlier that it's fine to talk to me using my name."

"Shepard," she repeated, rolling his name around like it was some kind of foreign term, which—he realised after a moment—it actually was to her. Shaela made a sound of frustration. "That feels strange," she muttered.

"You'll get used to it," he smiled. "We're on the same team, Shaela, so I'd rather you call me Shepard if that's all right. If you really don't want to, though—"

"No, no, I think I'll get used to it," the quarian interrupted. "It will just take a while." She sneezed loudly before settling back down on the bed and facing away from him. "You should probably get back… Shepard. You've left Kasumi waiting for too long already."

Shepard frowned at the reappearance of the same strange element to her voice he had noticed just a moment ago, but he decided not to reflect on it as he began to head back towards the door. If he had delayed for a moment and instead walked around the bed so he could see Shaela's mask, he would have noticed the shape of her eyes as they hinted at the small smile the quarian wore.

* * *

He finished the trip back to the storage room almost as quickly as he had completed the walk in the other direction, despite the weight of the chair, entering it to find Kasumi sitting where he had left her, the thief seemingly not having moved an inch. Feeling a small amount of worry, Shepard approached before setting the chair down next to her. It was not until he gently placed a hand on her shoulder that Kasumi showed any reaction at all to his presence, flinching at the light touch before her amber eyes looked up at him in surprise, the normally incredibly observant woman seemingly having no idea he had entered the room until that moment.

"Are you okay?" he asked, gaze locked with hers, so many different emotions in her eyes he couldn't even attempt to identify them.

"Me?" Kasumi asked, making a scoffing noise. "You know me, Shep. I'm fine."

"Are you?" He sat down before turning towards her. "We've been through a lot together, Kasumi. Enough that it's obvious something is bothering you."

The thief glanced away, clearly debating whether to tell him or not before she looked back at him. "It's Rassen and Shaela," she said finally.

"What about them?" Shepard asked, brow furrowing in confusion.

"Nothing! Well, nothing bad anyway." Kasumi let out a sigh of frustration. "I was… I was watching them train together," she continued, "and after a while they had to stop because Shaela's still recovering from a little kissing session they had. Rassen tried to heal her with the Force but wasn't able to, and then things got a bit… private between them."

Shepard stared at her in disbelief. "You're not saying they—"

"No!" Kasumi laughed, but it sounded more than a little forced. "No, it was just a… a couple moment. I'm really happy for both of them, Shep, don't get me wrong, but it brought back… it brought back memories."

"Keiji," he muttered, drawing a nod from the thief. "I'm sorry, Kasumi."

"Ah, it's all right, Shep," she replied, but he noticed how she looked away before wiping her eyes so quickly he almost missed it. "It's just… I just…" her voice broke, and something stirred in the pit of Shepard's stomach. Following his instincts, he waited until Kasumi looked back at him, eyes shining, before leaning towards her, pulling the thief into his arms.

For one horrible moment he thought he had made a mistake. Kasumi stiffened in surprise, and he was about to draw back and apologise, only for her to return the embrace, holding onto him much more tightly than he did her. Shepard tightened his own hold around the thief's waist in response as Kasumi pressed her face into his shoulder, silent sobs wracking her body. He began gently rubbing circles on her back as she continued to cling to him, the black and grey material of her bodysuit softer than he had expected.

A few minutes passed before Kasumi pulled her face away from his shoulder, dried tears streaking her face as she laughed shakily. "Thanks, Shep," she smiled weakly. "I n-needed t-that. Didn't t-take you for a hugger, though."

"Anytime, Kas," he replied, eyes widening as she jumped slightly in response. In the back of his mind Shepard was suddenly aware he had never called her by a nickname before, a fact that had clearly not been lost on her either. As they continued to hold onto one another, his blue eyes staring into her amber, something imperceptible seemed to shift between them.

Kasumi's hood couldn't hide the look of nervousness on her face as Shepard realised with a start that they had begun to lean towards each other. His gaze dropped from her amber eyes with their rapidly dilating pupils to her lips as her tongue ran across them, the purple tattoo that sat on the bottom one seeming to beckon to him as the gap between their faces shrank to only a few inches. He could feel Kasumi's warm breath as it gently fanned across his face, the thief tilting her head up as he moved his own down, the gap between them less than an inch now.

When perhaps only a millimetre separated them the mood abruptly shifted. He stared in surprise as Kasumi suddenly pulled away before staggering to her feet. She didn't make eye contact as she glanced around desperately before locating the door out of the room and bolting towards it without a word, leaving him there as it closed behind her. Stunned, Shepard could only sit there in silence, reliving the moment over and over again, alone except for the pile of proximity mines in front of him.


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N: Another chapter is ready, so here we go!**

 **Responses to reviews are as follows:**

 **AnarionRising27: Thanks, I'll try! Glad to hear you like the idea of a Male Shepard/Kasumi pairing as well!**

 **Chapter 24: Foresight**

Beep.

She slowly opened one eye, hoping she had imagined the noise. She didn't know how long she had been asleep for, but it could only have been a couple of hours or so at most.

Groaning weakly, Matriarch Wessa allowed her eye to close, joining its twin as she felt herself drifting off back to sleep. She had been having a good dream. Perhaps she could return to it if she was lucky. Shifting position slightly on the bed, the mattress beneath her soft and the covers on top of her warm, the asari decided the noise had indeed been imaginary. After all, if whatever she had heard had been real, surely it would have sounded more than just once.

Beep.

Goddess damn it.

Grunting as she forced herself to sit up, fighting against her uncooperative body all the way as it complained she needed to rest, Wessa let out a loud yawn before trying to work out where the noise was coming from. The sound was familiar, but her still mostly asleep brain was struggling to place it. In fact, it wasn't until a third beep sounded that she realised it was coming from her omni-tool. Curious as to who could be messaging her at this hour, seeing as how it was unlikely to be anyone else on Rannoch for obvious reasons, she activated the device, wincing at the bright orange light which burst to life and contrasted strongly with the darkness that filled the rest of her room.

Wessa sat up straighter as her eyes adjusted and she saw the message was from Shaela, frowning as she realised that while it had only just arrived, it was dated to several days ago. Some delay was to be expected given how far apart she and the quarian were of course, but that was far too long a period to be normal. Shaking her head as she opened the message, which she noticed Shaela also seemed to have sent to her parents, she began to read it.

Illuminated by the glow of her omni-tool, Wessa's expression changed from one of satisfaction at how the quarian had managed to find her human boyfriend, to shock as she reached the next part. What the hell did Shaela think she was doing? Commander Shepard, if he was even alive like the quarian seemed convinced he was, had more allies and close friends than anyone else in the galaxy. As much as she tried to in that moment, Wessa just couldn't see the same young woman she had taken under her wing attempting a rescue mission and fighting off a small army of batarians and 'Mandalorians,' whatever they were, especially since the latter had apparently wiped out an entire colony.

The message ended with a plea to send help. Being a matriarch had its benefits, but all of Wessa's resources were currently tied up assisting in the galaxy-wide recovery effort. While she could redirect some of her ships and she certainly had the wealth to scrape together some mercenaries, all of that would take time, something she seriously doubted Shaela had.

However, resources were short in general nowadays, and she doubted anyone else would be willing to send help after a single quarian, even one who claimed they were attempting to rescue Commander Shepard. As far as most of the galaxy was convinced, its greatest hero had died fighting the Reapers at the end of the war. The only people who could help Shaela would be those who would never give up on the commander but also held positions of substantial power.

Wessa's eyes widened as she realised she knew someone who fit that criteria.

Admittedly, knew was a strong word. She had never met him, but they had exchanged a few messages, since he was the individual with what most closely resembled overall authority when it came to the reconstruction effort. Despite Rannoch being the homeworld of another species to his own, he had done his level best to make sure every race had as many supplies allocated to it as possible. If anyone possessed both the resources and drive to help Commander Shepard and thereby help Shaela, it was him.

The matriarch began scrolling through her expansive list of contacts, silently praying she could find the information she was looking for. If she had deleted it by mistake, that was game over. People in his position did not exactly go around publically announcing how to get in contact with them. As the seconds turned into minutes, Wessa began to feel a small amount of panic as well as a considerable amount of frustration. Just where was the name she was looking for?

Then she saw it. Wasting no time, she began forwarding the message to the man whose name was spelled out in glowing orange letters by her omni-tool. The man who might well be Shaela's only chance.

Admiral Steven Hackett.

* * *

While she was feeling better than she had yesterday, that didn't stop the sweat from rolling down her face as she forced herself to keep going.

Gasping in deep lungfuls of air, Shaela swung her lightsaber in a diagonal strike, one she had been taught just half an hour ago, only for Rassen to block it easily. Trying to keep up her offensive, she alternated between that attack and the two she had learned the previous day, the man opposite her never struggling as he defended himself without any difficulty whatsoever. Whereas she felt as though she was going to drop at any moment, Rassen was, in contrast, merely breathing faster than normal, barely any sweat on his face.

Arms burning, she overextended slightly while executing a simple stab, another move she had just been taught, realising her mistake too late as the human grabbed her wrist with his free hand, holding onto it firmly before positioning the tip of his lightsaber a few inches from her neck. Letting out a sigh of frustration, she nodded her head as she admitted defeat, Rassen instantly deactivating his blade as she did the same. Her annoyance all but evaporated, however, as the human pulled her closer before kissing the top of her head, well, helmet, the gesture of affection bringing a smile to her lips.

"You may be getting faster," Rassen explained, "but you have a tendency to telegraph your attacks. Try to avoid tensing up when you decide to aim at a specific area, since that tells your opponent exactly where the strike will land."

Shaela nodded. "Okay," she replied, still out of breath. "Give me a moment."

"Of course."

She turned away from him, stretching her arms above her head in order to relieve the pain that had built up in them. Sighing in relief, she let her gaze drop, only to flinch as she suddenly noticed there was a third person in the room.

"Kasumi, don't do that!" she exclaimed.

Shaela felt her alarm give way to confusion as the thief, who much like the previous day had managed to enter the room without either herself or Rassen noticing and was once more sitting on a crate, blinked slowly as though coming out of a deep trance, eyes seeming to look straight through the quarian before they managed to focus on her. Staring at the human woman in surprise, Shaela then glanced at Rassen as he walked over to stand next to her, looking not at all shocked that Kasumi had, for all intents and purposes, materialised out of thin air.

"How long has she been here?" she asked.

Rassen shrugged. "Ten minutes or so."

"You knew and you didn't say?"

"I expected she might turn up again, so I managed to sense her this time, yes."

She scowled at him. "And you didn't tell me because…"

Rassen, to his credit, thought quickly, though he wasn't quite able to hide his smile. "I was testing your awareness," he replied, turning to the thief and addressing her before Shaela could protest. "Are you all right, Kasumi?" he asked, expression giving away he too had picked up on the fact something was wrong.

The thief didn't answer at first, her gaze seeming to stare right through Rassen much like it had Shaela before finally focusing on him. "Sorry," she muttered finally. "I just needed a distraction and thought it would be a good idea to watch you two train again. Too much to think about at the moment."

Shaela felt her worry increase and glanced over at Rassen to see him looking back at her with a concerned expression she knew matched her own. Turning her attention back to Kasumi, she walked over to the other woman and crouched down so they were at the same height. "When you ran off yesterday…" Shaela took a deep breath before trying again. "I'm really sorry if we did something to upset you."

"What?" Kasumi stared back at her in surprise. "No, no. It's not something wrong with you two, it's something wrong with me. I guess… I don't know…" she trailed off, hanging her head slightly.

Shaela looked back at Rassen, now convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that something was very wrong indeed. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked gently. "You know Rassen and I are here for you, right?"

A ghost of a smile appeared on the thief's lips. "I know," she replied quietly. "It's just… I'm not sure _how_ to talk about it."

Nodding slowly, Shaela straightened up before beginning to walk towards the nearest stack of crates, intending to pick one up for use as a seat. She paused mid-way as her target suddenly lifted into the air before moving over to her and slowly lowering to the ground. Giving Rassen a small smile as she noticed his outstretched hand, she sat down as he retrieved a crate of his own, joining her a moment later.

"Actually," Kasumi said suddenly, "would it be okay for me just to talk to you, Shaela?" She turned to Rassen. "No offence, big guy, but I'd feel more comfortable just discussing it with her for the moment."

Rassen tilted his head curiously but nodded, rising from his crate before returning it to its former place. As he began walking to the door, Shaela watched him as he turned to face her before mouthing Shepard's name and glancing very deliberately at Kasumi. Staring in surprise for a moment, she waved at him to signal she understood, mind racing. Did Rassen know something she didn't about why Kasumi was upset? Did he think Shepard was involved somehow? Shaking her head to clear it, the quarian returned her attention to the woman opposite her as Rassen left them alone, offering her a smile, not that she could see it.

"Are you really sure you wouldn't prefer to talk to Rassen instead?" she asked. "I mean, you've known him longer than you've known me."

"Not by much," Kasumi replied distractedly. "But I think you might understand more."

"Okay…" Shaela trailed off, now even more confused than she had been already. "Well, I'll do my best. What's wrong?"

The thief gave her a serious look but didn't say anything for a moment. "I almost kissed Shepard," she muttered finally.

"Oh," the quarian frowned. "That, um, doesn't sound that bad, Kasumi. Was he… was he not interested or something?"

"No," Kasumi shook her head. "He was definitely interested."

"So what's the problem?" Shaela asked curiously.

"I… I should probably start at the beginning," the human muttered. "How long do you think I've been a thief, Shaela?"

"I don't know," the quarian admitted, trying to ignore the discomfort she felt as she realised she was about to find out more regarding some of the more illegal parts of the other woman's past. She took a deep breath. Kasumi was a friend who needed help, which she would gladly provide. "A long time?" she said finally.

"Right. Long enough for me to find a partner."

Shaela frowned. "What does this have to do with you and Shepard?"

"I'll get to that. Anyway, his name was Keiji, and we met when we were both hired to steal the same painting. Instead of one of us taking it to our employer, though, we kept it for ourselves. From there we found we worked brilliantly together and eventually…"

Shaela swallowed heavily as the sentence hung in the air unfinished. She could feel the spectre of a terrible revelation lurking just beyond the current boundaries of the conversation. For a moment she was tempted not to finish Kasumi's sentence as though that would hold the reveal back. But after a few seconds the look in the other woman's eyes caused her to speak, mouth dry as she did so.

"You fell in love."

"We fell in love." Kasumi laughed mirthlessly and Shaela felt her heart clench. "It was stupid. We both knew it, but it still happened. For a while everything was perfect. And then…"

"And then?" Shaela prompted gently.

Kasumi's expression darkened, though the quarian could tell that thankfully it wasn't because of her. "Like I said, it was stupid. When you're a thief, luck is everything. Skill and planning are important, of course, but anything can go wrong at any moment. Keiji… he was killed by a man called Donovan Hock, who then stole his graybox."

"His what?" Shaela asked, completely unfamiliar with the term.

"Graybox. It's a device that can record someone's memories. Keiji knew something, information that would seriously undermine the Systems Alliance if it were to become widely known, and it was stored in the graybox. Naturally it was very well encrypted, but that didn't stop Hock from trying to find out what it contained."

Kasumi's voice was speeding up now, words flowing from her mouth so quickly Shaela was struggling to understand her. "I needed help to get it away from him. That was why I agreed to join Shepard. In exchange for my help, I was promised a very sizable fee and he agreed to retrieve the graybox with me."

Shaela was both metaphorically and physically on the edge of her seat now, but she reined in her curiosity as best she could. Kasumi looked fragile, almost as though she might break at any moment. She decided to remain silent as she waited for the thief to continue, allowing her to collect her thoughts before resuming her account in her own time.

"To make a long story short, Shep agreed, we got the graybox, and I killed Hock. Afterwards, though, I didn't know what to do with it. Keiji had left a message for me within it where he asked me to destroy the device. I wanted to do as he asked, but that graybox was the closest I would ever get to having him back. Shepard… he told me the choice was mine to make, but that he thought I should destroy it, that Keiji's final wish should be granted. So I did."

Kasumi wiped her eyes. "Anyway, to make an even longer story short, I kept my end of the bargain. I helped Shep and the others with the Collectors. When the Reapers came I worked on the Crucible at his suggestion instead of joining up again, since I told him I wasn't willing to dive headfirst into something of that scale." She shook her head slowly. "But I could have."

Shaela reached out, gently taking one of the other woman's hands in her own. "So why didn't you?" she asked softly.

"Because… You remember what the Reapers were capable of, right? How they levelled entire cities, devastated whole planets? The Collectors might have kept to the shadows more, Shaela, but they were scary enough in their own right."

Tears were freely running down her face now, and Shaela scooted closer before embracing the human. "It's okay," she whispered. "Everybody was terrified of the Reapers, Kasumi. There's nothing wrong with—"

"It wasn't that," the thief interrupted. "I was scared for myself, sure. More than that though, I was scared for Shepard."

She took a deep, shuddering breath before continuing. "It started slowly at first. He was always going around the Normandy talking to everyone, listening to them about their problems and trying to help them. Soon I realised he was coming to see more often than most of the others. Not long after that I realised he was visiting me more often than _any_ of the others. We talked about all kinds of things. The various pieces I'd stolen, certain missions he'd been on, everything. I tried to keep our conversations as short as possible, keep things professional, but every time he left I still ended up looking forward to the next time he would drop by."

"Go on," Shaela whispered.

Kasumi swallowed. "It took a while until we could actually go to Bekenstein and get Keiji's graybox. Once we had dealt with that, he started visiting even more often than he had before. I could tell he was worried about me… And soon after I started worrying about him whenever he was off on a mission and I wasn't part of the ground team. Right before we hit the Collector base, I made myself a promise. I would leave as soon as the Collectors were dealt with. I would still try to help out against the Reapers when I could, but I would never join up with him again."

"Why?"

"I realised I liked him as soon as we met," the thief whispered so silently Shaela almost didn't hear her. "That on its own wasn't too bad. I just tried to ignore how I felt, spent some time with the rest of the crew. It was so soon after Keiji, but I… My feelings got stronger after the graybox had been destroyed. And that scared me. After that, I started to think that maybe it wasn't just simple attraction anymore but something else."

She shook her head slowly before continuing. "And Shepard was always right where it was most dangerous. He died once, did you know that? When he started fighting the Collectors after being gone for so long, most of the galaxy assumed either it wasn't him or his death had been faked, but he was dead, Shaela. Cerberus used more credits than anyone has ever used on one person before in terms of medical equipment to bring him back. I didn't know what I felt after Bekenstein exactly, and I still don't. So when I saw him on the Citadel while the Reapers were crushing all opposition, I just… I just couldn't go with him again."

Kasumi laughed the same hollow laugh she had earlier. "And now, months after the Reapers are gone, months after he disappeared again, I found out the batarians had him. And what did I do?" Shaela opened her mouth to reply, only for the human to answer her own question before she could.

"I dragged you and Rassen with me before even thinking about what I'd promised myself. And now here we are again. Shepard could die… and I can't watch that happen."

"So don't let it," Shaela said firmly, tightening her hold on the other woman to make sure she got her point across. "You remember how Rassen wanted me to go back to Rannoch as soon as I arrived?" She waited for Kasumi to nod before continuing. "Then you'll remember I told him there was no way I was going to let him put himself in danger without me. If you're really worried about Shepard that much, then tell him how you feel. Don't let him get himself killed."

"But what if he still—"

"Do you love him?" Shaela interrupted, voice firm but gentle. She waited as Kasumi stared at her, mouth slowly opening and closing before she finally replied.

"I-I don't know," the thief shook her head. "I just…" she trailed off, remaining silent for several seconds before she spoke again, voice nearly inaudible.

"Yes," she whispered, eyes widening slightly. "I think I… I think I do."

Shaela gave her a reassuring smile. "When Rassen and I were separated, at first a part of me wished we'd never told each other how we felt. Like that would make everything easier to bear. The more I thought about it in those first few months, though, the more I realised how wrong that was. I hated the fact he was gone, but I would have hated him being gone and not knowing if he felt the same way even more. If I'd never seen him again, him not knowing would have been something I would have regretted for the rest of my life."

She gently pulled away from the thief. "We could all die in the next few days, Kasumi, that's true. But if that does happen, what would you regret?"

A fire suddenly entered the other woman's eyes, but before she could reply the door to the cargo hold slid open to reveal Rassen, who was slightly out of breath and had a look of worry plastered to his face. His eyes met Shaela's and she could instantly tell she wouldn't like what he was about to say.

As it turned out, she was right.

"I cannot find Shepard anywhere on the ship," the Jedi Knight panted. "And I have looked everywhere."

* * *

As sweat rolled down his face in thick rivulets, Shepard was beginning to have second thoughts about what he was doing.

When Kasumi had run yesterday, he hadn't known what to do. So many possible courses of action had run through his mind. Should he go after her? Should he leave her alone? Should he ask Rassen and Shaela to check on her if she didn't want to see him? That moment was one of the handful in his life where he hadn't had any idea how to proceed. Shepard could honestly say he hated those moments.

As far as he could tell, Kasumi had wanted to get away from him, hence why she had run. As a result, after sitting there and going through the same options for almost an hour, he had decided to leave her alone. That being said, staying away from her caused worry to gnaw at him as his mind conjured up the worst theories it could for why she had run. He had lain awake in the storage room for hours—reasoning it would be better to avoid the bunkroom since she would obviously sleep there—barely getting any sleep before deciding he might as well do something productive.

Rassen and Shaela had already been up and training by that point, so he had left the ship as quietly as possible. As well as allowing him to do something useful, being outside its confines would help him think more clearly, he had reasoned. After all, fresh air often did wonders for someone's mental capacity after an extended period indoors.

Yet even something usually as mundane as thinking was proving difficult.

Venture itself was the reason. Being the closest planet to the system's star meant it was quite frankly ridiculously hot outside the ship. Indeed, the only reason it was possible for humans to survive was the planet's atmosphere, which was thicker than Earth's, and also lacked any holes in its ozone layer like those that had caused considerable concern for humanity several centuries ago. Where the oxygen he was breathing was coming from Shepard had no idea, given he hadn't seen any plants yet, but it was certainly there, thankfully.

It was for that reason Shepard chose not to wander too far from the ship. His decision to leave it had been a spur of the moment thing, and he had noticed the ridiculous temperature and nearly blinding sunlight as soon as he had lowered the vessel's ramp. It had been stupid of him not to bring any water, but he had been so desperate to get away for a moment that he had ignored his common sense. He was regretting that now, but at least he was almost done with the job he had assigned himself.

Rising from where he had just been kneeling on the ground—which was a requirement for what he was doing—Shepard counted his strides as he walked west for a few seconds, ensuring each step he took was as long as possible. Glancing back to ensure he was sufficiently far away, he knelt down again, unshouldering a heavy bag he had brought with him and gently lowering it to the ground before unzipping it.

Reaching inside, he carefully removed a proximity mine, one of the last ones he had yet to place, and buried it, doing so by first using his omni-tool to form a blade so he could cut through the green rock of the valley floor. Next he removed a large chunk of stone before placing the mine into the hole. That done, he then replaced the piece of rock and used his omni-tool's fabrication module to smooth over the area, carefully ensuring the ground looked exactly as he had found it. Finally, he noted down on his omni-tool exactly where the mine was, something he had done for all of the others so far as well.

It only took another five minutes to place the rest of the mines in a similar fashion, but by then Shepard was beginning to feel seriously unwell. As well as being soaked in sweat all over, he was trembling with exhaustion from the intense heat, and his armour seemed to have quadrupled in weight. Even so, he forced himself to walk at a brisk pace back to the ship despite the valley floor sloping upwards towards the cave that housed it. As soon as he entered the cave, the temperature became much more bearable, since it shielded him from the sunlight, though it was still rather unpleasant.

As he punched in the command for the ramp to lower, a wave of cool air washed over him, a result of the ship's still-active life support functions. Unable to prevent himself from releasing a groan of satisfaction as it struck his face, Shepard began to stagger his way up the ramp, keying in the command for it to close behind him when he reached the top. While he hadn't been able to think through what had happened with Kasumi, he had at least distracted himself for a while. Though that wasn't ideal, he had managed to avoid the churning mass of confused emotions he had been left with for a moment at least, which he supposed was a—

"John."

Too tired to jump despite being caught off-guard, he turned away from the almost closed ramp to find Kasumi standing right behind him. He was about to ask her what the matter was, only for the thief to hold out a canteen of water while remaining silent. Grabbing it from her much more desperately than he normally would have, Shepard brought it to his mouth and drank its contents in a few deep gulps, practically inhaling the flavourless liquid as though it were the most delicious drink in the galaxy. Being as thirsty as he was, it certainly felt like it could be in that moment.

Kasumi watched him as he drank, her expression giving nothing away. That only caused his worry to return with a vengeance. He hadn't meant to upset her yesterday, but he clearly had. He had thought she was leaning in as well. He hadn't imagined that had he? His thoughts were abruptly cut short as Kasumi stepped closer, leaving them only a few inches apart. Despite her much shorter height, the intensity in her eyes made it feel as though she towered over him.

"Promise me you'll survive this."

He stared at her in surprise. "Kasumi, what—"

"Promise. Me."

"I… You know I can't do that," he replied, eyes widening at the flash of anger he saw pass through the thief's own. "Is this about yesterday? I'm sorry about everything, Kasumi. I didn't mean to—"

"Do you love me?"

Kasumi's voice was a whisper now, but if anything its intensity was even greater than before as result. He swallowed, mouth dry despite the water he had just drunk. She knew, of course she did. He had tried to kiss her. There were hardly any more obvious signs than that one.

"Yes," he admitted, feeling as though he were confessing to a great crime. "I'm sorry if that upsets you. You mentioned Keiji and…" he was struggling for words now, his usual talent when it came to diplomacy eluding him just when he felt he needed it most, "I never wanted to make you uncomfortable. I know you don't feel the same way," another flash of anger passed through the amber eyes that stared at him, cutting Shepard off mid-sentence. His heart sank as Kasumi moved even closer, their bodies now touching as she looked up at him, hood doing nothing at this angle to conceal her still mostly unreadable expression.

"Promise," her voice trembled, causing his heart to sink further, "me," she finished, the intensity of her gaze causing him to feel unsteady.

Shepard took a deep breath. "I promise," he relented, feeling a small amount of relief as Kasumi nodded once. "Now about yesterday—"

The thief suddenly reached up with both arms at a blinding speed, her fingers tangling in his hair as she yanked his head down.

And kissed him.

It lasted for less than a second before Kasumi drew back, leaving Shepard staring at her in shock. "I… You…" he managed weakly, head spinning as his lips tingled and his pulse raced. "I don't…"

"I love you too, John," she whispered. "But just this once, no inspiring speeches."

Kasumi kissed him again, and this time Shepard reacted, moving his hands to her waist as he kissed her back.


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N: Nothing much to say, so…**

 **Responses to reviews are as follows:**

 **AnarionRising27: Thanks as always for the encouragement!** **I'm very relieved the Shepard-Kasumi romance has added to the story for you, since I gave a lot of thought to making it work considering what they've both been through.**

 **Guest: Um, it wasn't made from omni-gel. It's explicitly stated that the crystal was a standard green lightsaber crystal, no omni-gel involved in its creation, unlike the other lightsaber parts.**

 **Chapter 25: Tension**

As she walked through the dimly-lit corridors she had long since grown sick of, Mandalore admitted to herself that she had to give Balak some small amount of credit. The batarians he had gathered had all at one stage or another been a part of their race's military, which she understood had been all but wiped out by the Reapers during the galaxy-wide conflict that had come to an end prior to her arrival. That meant they at least had some semblance of organisation… even if they were little more than cannon fodder compared with her warriors.

Even before her wounds had been seen to, she had ordered an accounting be made of all those Commander Shepard had managed to kill. Simply thinking about the final tally caused the fingers of one of her hands to curl into a fist. She had assumed it would be bad, but never could she have predicted the final number was as large as it was.

Dozens of Mandalorians had been killed by the explosion that still seemed to ring in her ears whenever she thought about it. Almost double that had been injured, and more than a hundred batarians had been killed before their own wounded were factored in. When the Systems Alliance came to investigate why the area had gone dark, it would be all but impossible to oppose just their initial force now, even with all bar one of the batarian ships still available.

Which was why she had decided to change tactics.

Commander Shepard was a hero. If she were able to reacquire him, that opened up new possibilities. He was beloved and hated enough throughout the galaxy that he could prove to be a very useful pawn indeed. That meant she couldn't kill him. However, he still needed to suffer. While she cared little for the dead batarians, the loss of her own warriors was not something she could overlook.

So she would show him what that kind of loss was like.

Knowing your enemy was the key to defeating them, but she had found nothing on his three companions despite her best efforts. The Jedi, the quarian, and the human woman might as well have been ghosts by comparison with the commander. That meant they were expendable.

She had already decided on the order they would die, the order in which she would personally kill them in front of Shepard. Firstly, it would be the quarian. Secondly, the Jedi, since he had been supporting the commander when she had arrived at the hanger and so seemed to have a closer relationship with him than the suited alien. Finally, the human woman, who she had not failed to notice seemed to be the closest to the commander of the three, judging by their body language towards each other.

It was ironic when she really considered it. She had primarily addressed the Jedi when the four of them had attempted to escape, assuming he represented the greatest threat. In almost any other situation she would have been correct to do so, but the commander had revealed he was if anything even more deadly. She would not allow herself to be taken by surprise like that again.

The voice of someone trying to get her attention caused her to snap out of her thoughts and stop walking, still not at her destination despite having passed through several corridors since she had begun her musing. Mandalore turned slowly, crossing her arms as she recognised the younger Mandalorian as the latter came to a halt before her. "Yes?" she inquired coolly, tone detached as she addressed her sibling. It matched how she felt about her younger sister. They had the same mother and father… and it mattered not even slightly to her.

The other woman, seemingly having run to find her, panted slightly before replying. "The batarians… the last few ships have reported in and accept your terms as well. All of them have agreed to follow you until they've seen Shepard suffer. After that, though—"

"What they think they will choose to do after is irrelevant," she interrupted. "Once the commander is back in our hands and his friends are dead, they will continue their alliance with us."

"I don't think—"

"Are you questioning me?" she interrupted, voice barely more than a whisper.

"No, sist… No, Mandalore."

"Good," she smiled cruelly, not that the other woman could see it. "You are dismissed. Go and see if you can be of use to a better warrior than yourself. That way I might not regret bringing you here."

"There's something else," her younger sister blurted, causing Mandalore to sneer before the former clearly sensed her superior's ire and pressed on. "We might have a lead."

"Might?"

"There's a signal coming from a planet called Venture. It's very faint, might be a random glitch in the system or something to do with the small mining colony on the planet that was abandoned because of the Reapers. It could be worth investigating."

Mandalore glared at her. "Of course it's worth investigating," she spat. "We have several ships scouring Venture right now, if I remember correctly. Tell them to head to the location of the signal and investigate, but also to avoid any fighting. If they find our escaped guests, they are to inform me at once and wait for reinforcements."

"I… Yes, Mandalore."

"Dismissed," she said carelessly, turning away from the other woman and leaving her standing there as she continued on her way as though she had never been interrupted, soon leaving her far behind.

Shepard and the others were dangerous, and it would be foolish to only send in a handful of her own people and batarians to capture them. Besides, she wanted to be there herself. The commander would watch his friends suffer and die for what he had done, and she would be the one to cut down each of his companions in front of him. Once that was dealt with, he would prove useful in dealing with the Systems Alliance vessels that might very well be preparing to set off at this very moment, since she doubted they would do anything to risk the life of their greatest hero if she had a blaster to his head.

Mandalore smiled cruelly for the second time that day as she finally reached the destination she had been heading towards since before she had been interrupted by her sister. The door to the armoury slid open, allowing her into its gloomy interior. Approaching one of the racks furthest from the door, she reached out and picked up the weapon she had been saving for a special occasion. It had been intended for a duel against a worthy opponent, but cutting down the commander's friends with it would be satisfying enough.

The weapon resembled a sword more than anything else, with a hilt long enough for two hands to grasp it connecting to a long blade that curved upwards at the end. It was barely adorned with any decoration whatsoever, only the leather grip which consisted of straps that crisscrossed one another being eye-catching in any way. Savouring how the vibrosword fit perfectly into her gauntleted hands, Mandalore set off for her private quarters, already savouring the confrontation to come.

* * *

Something very important had happened between them.

At least, that was the only conclusion Rassen had come up with so far. Shepard hid it well, but the fact he had managed to strike the commander several times so far without the superior fighter landing a blow on him in return made it obvious.

There had been a brief moment of panic after he had informed Shaela and Kasumi that the ship's other male occupant was missing, but the thief had quickly worked out he must have gone outside to place a number of proximity mines. He and Shaela had stared at her in disbelief before she had rolled her eyes and explained that Shepard had obtained them in much the same way Rassen had the lightsaber parts for Shaela. She had then gone to wait by the loading ramp, telling the two of them to keep training and leave her and Shepard to talk.

That had been an hour or so ago, and now Rassen found himself sparring against a completely exhausted yet happy looking Shepard, wondering both whether Venture truly was as unpleasant as it seemed based on the other man's state and also just what had occurred between him and Kasumi. It had clearly been a good thing, but given the thief had explained whatever was going on to only Shaela and not him, Rassen was feeling seriously out of the loop. Still, he and Shaela would be resuming the latter's training after the session with the commander was complete, so could ask her if everything was well then.

Anyway, he reasoned, easily ducking a punch that was much slower than he would have expected, it was none of his business, really. If either Shepard or Kasumi wanted him to know, they would tell him. If they didn't then that was their right. He merely wanted to make sure the rift between them he had sensed had healed at least somewhat, that neither would be too distracted and so in more danger than they would otherwise be once the Mandalorians and batarians discovered their location.

Shepard suddenly aimed a kick directly at the centre of his chest, causing Rassen to silently curse at how he had allowed himself to get lost in thought as he barely managed to sidestep the attack. Blocking the punch that followed, he jabbed to force the other man to retreat before backing away himself, leaving them several steps apart.

"You're distracted again."

The Jedi Knight shrugged slightly, not allowing himself to do any more than that lest it allow Shepard an opening. "True," he admitted. "Though, unlike last time, it seems I am not the only one with my thoughts elsewhere."

Shepard only grinned in reply before closing the gap between them, and they exchanged a few jabs each as they began to circle one another. "I'm in a good mood," he replied finally, though his eyes continued to look for any weakness in Rassen's form he could exploit. "This is just a one-off. For you, however, this is the second time in a row. I'm beginning to think this is a recurring problem as far as Jedi are concerned."

"It is one entirely unique to me, I'm afraid," Rassen said, faking a kick before just managing to graze the other man's jaw with a jab. "As far as one-offs go, though, it certainly seems to have left you slightly below par, Shepard. Clearly you and Kasumi found a non-platonic resolution to whatever upset you both."

Taking advantage of Shepard's look of surprise, Rassen charged him head-on, gambling that the directness of the attack would take him off-guard. His armoured shoulder collided with the commander's chestplate with an audible clang, knocking Shepard to the floor and causing Rassen to stagger heavily. He was about to smile victoriously, only for a gauntleted hand to grab onto one of his legs, Shepard pulling him down with unbelievable strength.

Grunting as he fell onto his front, Rassen tried to put some distance between them by rolling away, only to feel an arm circle his neck. Pushing down the frustration that arose at having nearly won the bout only to lose anyway, he tapped the ground as Shepard tightened the hold slightly, admitting defeat and causing the older man to release him.

"Not bad, kid," Shepard acknowledged as he clambered to his feet and held out a hand, causing Rassen to once again marvel at how he was pulled up with no difficulty at all. "Your guard is still a bit low, but you managed to prevent me from using that against you this time."

Rassen nodded, shaking out his limbs as he did so. "How are you so strong?" he asked curiously. "When you pulled me over I thought my stance was solid. I am surprised you were able to do it."

"Strength isn't everything."

"I'm aware of that, but I get the feeling there is something else I am not aware of."

A shadow passed over Shepard's face for a fleeting second, causing Rassen to wonder if he had said something to offend him. "That would be the Lazarus Project," the commander said after a moment.

"The what?" Rassen asked in confusion. "I have never heard of it."

"It's not too widely known." Shepard seemed to survey him for a second as though debating whether to tell him any more before deciding he might as well. "Back before Kasumi and I met, I was… killed in action by a race called the Collectors. I didn't know it was them at the time, but they were working with the Reapers, so they attacked my ship and destroyed it. Some of the crew made it out safely, some of them didn't. I was one of the latter."

"Wait," Rassen managed, unable to believe what he was being told. "How could you have been killed? When a person dies, there is no coming back from that aside from in the form of a Force ghost or perhaps through the use of the Dark Side, to my knowledge. You are not Force sensitive, though."

Shepard shook his head, seeming as though he had aged considerably since they had begun this topic of conversation. "I don't pretend to understand it," he admitted. "Suffice to say that a great deal of time, money, and effort went into my… into my resurrection. The organisation responsible, Cerberus, decided that while they wanted me largely the same, a few improvements could be made. They thought a greater level of toughness and physical strength than I had before would prove useful."

Rassen frowned at how the mood in the room had soured considerably. Feeling a small amount of guilt at the obvious discomfort Shepard was in, he decided to change tactics. "Regardless," he admitted, "you are still better than me. If not for whatever happened between you and Kasumi, you would likely have bested me very quickly for a second time in a row instead of almost being defeated yourself."

The slight smirk he got in reply told him his attempt had worked at least somewhat. "I can make up for that, if you have time to lose again."

Rassen allowed himself to raise an eyebrow. "I know now to avoid a direct test of my strength against yours, Shepard. I think you will find I will be victorious this time."

Shepard began moving in, and Rassen did likewise, though he prepared to move sideways at the first sign of an incoming attack. He barely heard the commander's reply he was so concentrated on the other man's movements, though it did cause him to smirk in return.

"Bring it on, Voratt."

* * *

"So did it go well?" Shaela asked as the door closed behind her.

She watched with a small amount of worry but mostly with amusement as Rassen turned his head to face her, though he remained kneeling, likely having chosen to mediate after his sparring session with Shepard, which had gone on for the better part of two hours. The quarian couldn't help a small laugh as the Jedi didn't reply for a moment, instead gesturing for her to kneel opposite him. She did so, laughing again as Rassen shook his head before giving her a slightly irritated look.

"I almost had him at one point," he shrugged. "Almost. Unfortunately, he still managed to get the better of me."

Shaela shrugged back. "But do you think you're learning anything? Becoming better at hand to hand combat?"

"It is hard to say this early on," the human replied thoughtfully. "The only way to know for sure is to participate in a real fight, though I fear that opportunity will come soon enough. Still, Shepard has pointed out a couple of things for me to work on, and he seems to be recovering his strength very quickly indeed."

"That's good," she nodded. Allowing her eyes to wander around the room for a moment, Shaela then turned her gaze back to Rassen to see him raise an eyebrow at her.

"You want to ask me something."

"Is it that obvious?"

"Only with you. You shift your weight around as though you cannot get comfortable when something troubles you." The human smiled at her reassuringly. "What is it, Shaela?"

"It's just that I've been wondering…" she trailed off as she thought about how best to phrase what she wanted to ask. "Obviously I need to know how to use a lightsaber properly, but could you teach me how to heal someone using the Force?"

She watched as Rassen frowned in confusion. "Yes, if you would like," he replied after a moment. "But why?"

Shaela lifted her hands from where they had been resting on her knees to take those of the human opposite her. "I know it won't make any difference as far as my immune system goes," she replied. "But if you get hurt, Rassen, and no medi-gel is nearby, then who heals you? On Watchman I was only able to help you and Kasumi because I had plenty of medi-gel to hand, but that might not be the case in the future if we're unlucky."

Rassen gave her an understanding look. "I see your point. Someone else being able to use the Force to heal would certainly be to our advantage, though healing was not the ability I planned to teach you next."

"And what was that?" Shaela asked, feeling a spark of excitement. "More lightsaber moves?"

The human gave her a knowing smile. "After a fashion. Specifically, I thought we should move on to deflection training. To blocking blaster and mass accelerator fire with a lightsaber, given that is one of its greatest advantages compared with other weapons."

Shaela nodded. "That does sound extremely important," she admitted. "But, if it's okay, could we go over Force healing first?"

"Very well," Rassen said slowly. "But only briefly. I know how vulnerable you are if your suit gets breached, Shaela. I want to make sure we go over some of the basics of blaster deflection before we run out of time. We can look at Force healing today, then protecting oneself from ranged attacks tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay," Shaela nodded, the world suddenly moving up and down of seemingly its own accord. Blushing as she realised she had begun bouncing with excitement as Rassen arched an eyebrow, she allowed him to remove his hands from hers. The human then pulled off both of his gloves, exposing his hands—including their completely unnecessary number of fingers—to her gaze.

She jumped as Rassen suddenly slammed one of his hands against the metal floor beneath them, the banging noise taking her completely off-guard before he then held it back up alongside its twin. She opened her mouth to ask what he was doing, only to notice that his hand had slightly reddened in response to the impact, the paler colour of the human's other one allowing her to see the change easily.

"I'm sorry," Rassen said apologetically. "We have very little time, so we are going to have to get right to work. Close your eyes and open yourself up to the Force, Shaela."

She nodded, allowing her eyes to begin to drift shut, only to open them again before they had completely closed. "Do I, um, need to remove mine?" she asked, glancing in the direction of the human's gloves before looking back at him.

"No," Rassen replied, shaking his head once. "I just took mine off to make this a little easier, since you can see the difference between them. As you will be the one doing the healing, yours can remain on."

Shaela swallowed heavily. "I think," she began, "I should take mine off as well."

She blushed again as Rassen stared at her in confusion. "Shaela, you really do not need to," he said gently. "Besides, the risk of infection—"

"It's much safer than taking off my mask again," she interrupted quickly. "I'm a lot better than I was anyway, and the material at my wrists can tighten against my skin to limit how many pathogens I'm exposed to. I'll only be uncovering my hands, Rassen. On top of that, my body will have already started to get used to the microbes yours carries. This won't make me worse, I promise."

"But why—"

"I just," she took a moment to push down the small amount of frustration she felt. Rassen was just worried about her, getting angry at him for something outside of his control wasn't fair. "I just need to take them off, Rassen."

Clearly picking up on the fact she wasn't going to change her mind, the human nodded once. "Okay," he relented. "Just… You know I worry about you."

The quarian smiled at him. "I know," she whispered, leaning closer so he could hear her. "I worry about you, too."

Her stomach churning slightly despite the knowledge that what she was doing was much safer than removing her mask again, Shaela started on her left glove by activating her omni-tool. Keying into her suit's VI, she issued a command for the material that covered her hand to unseal from that which covered her wrist. That was one of the advantages of quarian envirosuits consisting of many different interlocked components rather than a single large one. Individual parts could be removed without the need to take the entire thing off, meaning it was much easier and safer to replace something should it become damaged.

There was no visible change as the process completed, but she could easily visualise the countless microbes that even now were filtering into her suit, so she quickly gave a command for it to seal at the wrist. Repeating the whole process for her other glove, Shaela then deactivated her omni-tool, breathing shakily. It was silly to be nervous after she had shown Rassen her face. That had been the big one. Even so, her hands were still parts of her he had only ever seen covered and that was enough to make her tremble slightly with excitement and nervousness.

She gently pinched the material over the forefinger of her left hand before carefully tugging on it. Slowly, a patch of grey skin appeared, pale on account of it never having been exposed to the sun of any planet. Swallowing, Shaela kept going, not stopping until the entire glove had been removed, leaving her hand on full display. Not looking at Rassen all the while, she then did the same with her right glove, staring in wonder at her uncovered hands for a moment before looking over at the human's.

The most obvious difference between them, of course, was the number of digits. With two more fingers on each than she had and their being smaller, she had always found Rassen's hands strange. Not bad strange just… different. The human also had… fingernails, she believed they were called, as well as several lines on the skin of each of his fingers' joints. Glancing back at her own hands, Shaela noted her own fingers were comparatively a little simpler, lacking the 'joint lines' and nails Rassen's had, their most distinguishing feature being their greater size compared with his.

Teeth grazing her lower lip, she looked up at the human's face, noticing with relief that he didn't appear troubled with the appearance of her hands in any way, just interested like she was. Smiling happily, she reached out, taking both of his in her own properly for the first time. His hands were warm, their skin rougher than her own but still soft in its own way. Her smile widened as Rassen returned it, the human interlocking his fingers with hers, the act a little awkward on account of them both having a different number to the other but still possible.

"This will have to do," she whispered, a sudden feeling of sadness overtaking her. "We can't take the chance… I mean we can't afford the risk that comes with me taking my mask off again. We don't know exactly when we'll be found, and we need everyone to be ready to fight."

"This is enough," Rassen smiled back at her gently. "I know just this is a lot for you, Shaela. I am always amazed when I remember you trust me this much."

"I want more, though," she blurted out, pulse suddenly racing. "I want to kiss you again. I want you to kiss me. I want…" she cut herself off, swallowing fearfully and looking away. Her stomach was now churning so badly she thought she might be sick. Her trembling was now so strong she was surprised Rassen wasn't shaking as well.

 _Change the subject! Think of something else to say before he asks—_

"What do you want, Shaela?" Rassen asked, interrupting her thoughts, reassuring smile still in place.

"I… I want…" Her tongue didn't want to obey her. It was moving without her permission. She was feeling lightheaded. She couldn't breathe properly. "I just… If we survive, I…"

"Yes?"

"I want you," Shaela whispered so quietly her voice was barely audible. For a moment she was convinced the human hadn't heard her as she closed her eyes and tried to pretend she hadn't just said that, only to open them as Rassen removed one of his hands from her own to gently tilt her chin up.

"I am afraid I do not understand. You have me, Shaela, you know that."

 _Oh, Ancestors!_

"That's not what I… not what I m-mean," she stammered, voice breaking towards the end. "I… I want you to see me, Rassen." Seeing he was about to interrupt, she continued before he could. "I want you to see all of me. And… I want to see all of you. If you feel the same way… um, do you feel the same way?"

Rassen opened his mouth to respond, only to close it a moment later. He opened it again, only to close it once more. In any other circumstances it would have been funny, but Shaela only felt a growing sense of dread as he continued to stare at her in shock.

"Forget it," she managed. "It's too soon for you, isn't it? I should never… We were talking about Force healing. How do I—"

"I want that, too."

Her mouth had never felt this dry before. "You… Rassen, I'm talking about—"

Rassen gave her a small smile. "I grew up in a temple, Shaela, but I understand what you are saying. If we can make the right preparations to stop you from getting too sick, then yes. It will give us another reason to survive, to keep going for each other." He squeezed the hand he still held, causing her to return the smile. "But for now we should worry about actually making it that far."

Clearly reluctant as he did so, the human took her other hand back into his free one before speaking again. "Now, open your mind to the Force. Let it flow through you unobstructed, then reach out…"

She lost track of time as the comforting warmth of the Force filled her, Shaela barely hearing Rassen's instructions as she did as he said, slowly channelling the energy that seemed to suffuse every fibre of her being into the human's slightly injured hand. At his instruction, she looked for the healing process his body was already undergoing and augmented it, willing it to speed up just a little. Opening her eyes after however long she had kept them shut, Shaela felt a spark of excitement as she saw Rassen's hand was much less red than it had been, the skin very close in hue to that of his other hand than it had been when she had started.

Eventually, after however long it was, both hands matched. Shaela felt… strange. Mentally exhausted, like the act had taken a tremendous amount out of her, yet physically she felt fine. Barely any more tired than she had been when they had begun. Looking up from the hands she still held to Rassen's face, her stomach flipped as he gave her that same gentle smile from before, the look of pride in his eyes causing her to grin back at him.

The door then suddenly opened, causing both of their gazes to snap round to it as Kasumi staggered into the room. Shaela blushed as she realised her hands were still uncovered, but if the thief noticed she paid them no mind. Instead, Kasumi looked between her and Rassen, the look in her eyes telling Shaela exactly what was happening even before the thief spoke.

"We have incoming ships. It's them."


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N: So, here we are again.**

 **Responses to reviews are as follows:**

 **AnarionRising27: Thanks! Hopefully the same level of quality will continue.**

 **Rob Sears (False Masks): I wasn't expecting you to like the story as much as you did, so it is awesome to hear that you on the whole really enjoyed it! Regarding the grammar errors, I still intend to go back and fix those, but it almost seems a shame to do so, since they serve as a reminder of how I was when I first started writing. I'll keep the original versions of those chapters for myself, of course.**

 **Again, thanks a lot for taking the time to read it and leaving such an insightful review. I really appreciate that you let me know you enjoyed it but also gave me some constructive criticism. Both mean a lot.**

 **Chapter 26: Pre-emptive**

There were too few of them for it to be an attack.

Eyes narrowing, Shepard continued to look out of the cockpit at the three ships that were heading directly towards their position. They had each been little more than a speck when he had first spotted them and Kasumi had gone to tell Rassen and Shaela what was happening, but that had only been moments ago, and they were already large enough now for him to be able to make out their main features.

Each was a mirror image of their own ship, which meant each also probably carried a crew the same size as theirs had before Kasumi, Shaela, and Rassen had managed to take it. If he was right, that meant that combined they were transporting thirty Mandalorians and batarians, which seemed like a rather small number considering the numbers Balak and Mandalore probably had. That meant this was probably a recon force. He had a horrible feeling far more would arrive before long.

Sliding a thermal clip into a sniper rifle he had managed to find in one of the crates in the cargo hold before leaving Rassen after they had finished sparring, Shepard checked nothing was wrong with the weapon before nodding to himself. He had checked it as soon as he had first picked it up, of course, but it was always a good idea to constantly make sure a gun was working properly and no faults had developed since its last inspection. A problem at the wrong moment could easily prove fatal.

He glanced up as the nearby door opened and Kasumi entered, Shaela and Rassen in tow. The thief pointed wordlessly at the approaching vessels, and Shepard watched curiously as the couple reacted. Rassen gave a more subdued response to the sight; his jaw tightened slightly, but otherwise he gave nothing away. Shaela, by contrast, moved her weight from one leg to the other and back again a few times, but the look in her eyes was as determined as the one the man next to her had as they glanced at each other before looking at Shepard as he spoke, Kasumi doing likewise.

"Based on how many you said one carried on Watchman," he began, "there should be about thirty of them. That's too few for an attack, especially when they've probably already guessed we've been preparing for them. More will be on their way, meaning these ones," he pointed at them much like Kasumi had done, "will have orders to find our exact location and prevent us from escaping until reinforcements arrive."

"How did they find us in the first place?" Rassen asked him, the younger man frowning as he turned to look back at the approaching ships. "Did they pick up on the few systems we left running like we thought they would, or did we do something wrong?"

Kasumi answered in his stead. "I looked over what we left on at one point," she said. "Shaela did a good job shutting down everything except what we couldn't afford to lose." She grinned at the other woman, who stopped shifting her weight as she smiled back. Well, that was what Shepard assumed she was doing as her eyes changed shape. "My guess is they finally scanned this area thoroughly enough to pick up something was here. To be honest, we're lucky they didn't notice us until now."

Coughing to bring everyone's attention back to him, Shepard continued quickly, the knowledge they had little time spurring him on. "We need to hit them as soon as they land," he said firmly. "If we wait then we'll have to fight them on top of the others when they arrive. I doubt we'll be able to kill them all before they let Balak and Mandalore know we're definitely here, but we can save the mines for the main force if we fight them near their ships. That way we can keep them a secret until they can do the most damage."

Rassen frowned again. "Why would they disembark? Surely they will see us as soon as they get close if they fly low enough to the ground."

Shepard shook his head. "If they've picked up there's a ship here, which we know they almost certainly have, they will find it very quickly," he explained, "but for all they know we guessed they would and abandoned it as soon as we landed, leaving some systems on to distract them while we braved the heat on foot trying to find somewhere better to hide. They'll want to know for sure, which means they have to examine the ship up close. To do that, they have to land and then walk nearer to it. We can ambush them then."

"Wait," Shaela interjected with a small amount of worry. "If you're right, there are thirty of them. There are only four of us. If we leave the ship and the cave, then we're outnumbered worse than seven to one in the open. They'll kill or capture us easily, won't they?"

Shepard couldn't help grinning, prompting a knowing look from Kasumi as she crossed her arms and grinned back while Shaela and Rassen turned to look at one another before turning their gazes back to him. "Not necessarily," he replied. "They have numbers on their side, yes, but we have plenty of abilities they don't have." He activated his omni-tool, sending the room's other three occupants the location of each of the mines he had placed. "Now, here's what we do…"

* * *

It never ceased to amaze her how easy most people were to hide from.

As the Mandalorian looked straight through her like she didn't exist, Kasumi couldn't help giving him a cheeky wave as he turned to speak to a batarian before shoving him, prompting another armoured warrior who was presumably his commanding officer to march over and defuse the situation before it could escalate. Laughing almost completely silently to herself, she crept over to one of the ships before sneaking round it and deactivating her tactical cloak, shielding herself from view with its bulk and allowing her equipment to recharge as she took a deep breath of scorching air, frowning as sweat rolled down her face.

Waiting without making a sound until her cloak was ready, Kasumi reactivated it before darting quickly but silently to the second ship, which was positioned to the right and just beyond the first, before once again switching it off when she was concealed by the machine. Peering around the rear of the vessel so she could make sure no one would reach her before her cloak was ready, she once again turned invisible when she could, darting to the final ship, which once again was slightly further back than the one she had been using as cover.

The three vessels had all landed some distance from the cave, touching down on flat ground within the valley beyond the furthest mines Shepard had placed and so beyond where the ground began to slope upwards to where their own ship sat. That hadn't been surprising. Kasumi had picked up enough about standard military procedure during her time on the Normandy to understand it was normally considered far too dangerous to land a ship right next to your target. Doing so exposed you to enemy fire before you even had a chance to disembark, meaning anyone with a brain would choose a location that was nearby but not too close. Combined with the valley being too narrow for the three ships to sit next to each other, the Mandalorians and batarians had been forced to land them in an untidy line stretching away from their target, meaning they had to spend precious moments linking up next to the closest ship to the cave upon leaving their vessels.

They were moments Kasumi was using to the fullest.

She was now hidden from view behind the furthest ship from the cave, meaning every single one of the Mandalorians and batarians was totally unaware a lone person had managed to sneak past all thirty or so of them. Leaning around her latest piece of cover, Kasumi did a quick headcount. There were nine Mandalorians and seventeen batarians or so by her reckoning, so that meant twenty-six in total, though there could be a few she couldn't see from her current position. Still, it was close to Shepard's estimated number.

The Mandalorian officer from before was now issuing orders, not that she could hear them from here, gesturing with one hand while his other held the grip of a blaster rifle, all of those who had arrived with him gathering around as they listened. A few moments later the mixture of Mandalorians and batarians split into different squads before beginning to advance towards the slope that led to the cave, the more heavily armoured figures noticeably more professional as they covered one another, their allies doing the same but with less efficiency.

Taking another deep breath of uncomfortably hot air, Kasumi continued to watch unnoticed, eyes focusing on the closest squad to her as she prepared to activate her cloak the moment she received the go ahead. Ducking back fully behind her cover as her omni-tool pinged, she opened the message that had just arrived, which featured only a single word.

Now.

Switching on her cloak and vanishing from sight, she dashed noiselessly from behind the ship and past the other two before reaching the closest squad in a matter of seconds. Gaze concentrating directly on the poorly armoured neck of the batarian at the rear of the group, she allowed a small grin to take over her features.

 _Just like old times._

* * *

With Kasumi currently making her way behind the Mandalorians and batarians in order to attack them from another direction, Rassen couldn't help being glad he and Shaela were required to remain in the cave for the moment. Given neither of them could turn invisible, Shepard's plan was for them to wait for the ideal moment to strike before rushing out, lightsabers at the ready. While Rassen was certainly uncomfortable due to the heat, sweat was already beading on his forehead even though he was remaining still, he couldn't help feeling sorry for Kasumi. It was no doubt worse in the open, and he doubted her tactical cloak shielded her from the elements as well as rendering her invisible.

He was currently crouching behind a large rock just beyond the right-hand side of the cave entrance while Shaela was positioned behind another rock over on the left, the quarian as on edge as he was as they waited for confirmation. Further back than the two of them by a few metres was Shepard, sniper rifle at the ready as he knelt in place, the stock of the bulky weapon braced against his shoulder as it barely wavered. No doubt he had already picked out a target and was simply using the telescopic sight on top of the rifle to see what was occurring in the valley more easily.

Looking over at Shaela and noticing the quarian was looking back at him, Rassen gave her a reassuring nod, which she returned. Deciding they had a few moments until all hell broke loose, he remained low as he moved over to her as quickly as he could, ensuring he was as concealed as she was before speaking.

"When they start shooting at us," he said firmly, "trust your instincts. Use the Force to allow yourself to sense where their shots will go before they have even been fired. I wish we had chosen to go over this earlier, but you can do this, Shaela. You just need to believe you can."

"Okay," the quarian replied, nodding a little too quickly, betraying the fear she felt. Rassen couldn't blame her. All of them were afraid; it would be stupid not to be. For himself, Shepard, and Kasumi, though, a superficial wound was just that; superficial. For Shaela, however, even a minor injury could result in a fatal suit breach, something he was well aware of. While she had most of the antibiotics Matriarch Wessa had given her with her and he was carrying the rest within his robe just in case, her lack of experience when it came to defending against projectile attacks meant he hated the idea of her going out there.

Which was why once Shepard had presented them with his plan of action he had insisted some elements of it be changed.

Shaela would only join in once their enemies were sufficiently distracted. That would give her the time necessary to close in and use her lightsaber, thereby eliminating the range advantage their foes had over her. As much as her knowledge of lightsaber combat was rudimentary at best, Rassen felt confident she could handle herself against a few batarians up close.

As much as Shaela had at first protested against the fact that for their opponents to be sufficiently distracted he would have to leave her behind for a few moments, she had soon relented, understanding he was just trying to protect her. She had refused to hang back and use her pistol, though, pointing out that it would be of little use considering the distance between the cave and the Mandalorians and batarians. She had then told him that even if it would have been effective at that range, she still wouldn't accept staying comparatively safe while he was fighting their enemies up close.

Giving her a small smile as they crouched together, Rassen glanced at Shepard to make sure they still had a little more time before turning back to the quarian and embracing her before kissing her mouthpiece, causing her eyes to widen.

"You can handle this," he promised. "Just wait for Shepard to give you the word and then come down to help. Trust in yourself and the Force and everything will be all right."

"It's time."

Rassen turned to see Shepard giving the two of them a firm but sympathetic look. "I'm about to send Kasumi the message," he explained.

Nodding to him before turning his attention back to Shaela, he felt her gently take his hands in her own. "You be careful as well, Rassen," she whispered quickly. "I love you."

Kissing the top of her head before pulling his hands free, he moved back into positon at the other side of the cave as Shepard typed something into his omni-tool and then focused his gaze back down the sight of his rifle. A moment later, the commander fired.

* * *

The booming sound of the shot filled his ears and was almost painful, but Shepard paid it no mind as his target, a Mandalorian who seemed to be giving everyone around him orders and was a part of the nearest squad to the cave, collapsed to the ground, one hand over his throat. Readjusting his aim, he fired again a few seconds later, another Mandalorian falling as his second shot likewise struck the area directly between the top of the man's chestplate and his helmet, right where his armour was thin.

A split-second later there was a distortion behind a batarian at the rear of the furthest group, Kasumi appearing out of nowhere as she likewise took her target out with an attack to the neck, her shadow strike dropping him as effectively as any bullet. She sprinted behind the nearest ship as soon as she had taken out the batarian, disappearing behind it just as those nearest her position turned and fired, neither blaster or mass accelerator fire even close to hitting her.

 _That's three down._

The suddenness of the attack from two directions had thrown the remaining Mandalorians and batarians into chaos. Some took cover facing where Kasumi had disappeared to, others began sprinting towards the cave, and some simply dropped to the ground where they were in order to minimise their target profiles as they tried to work out where to aim. Focusing his gaze on a batarian who was one of those heading for the cave, Shepard fired with the same unceasing accuracy as before, except this time he went for the head. With no helmet, the batarian's face simply ceased to be, his kinetic barrier flaring and dying as it failed to deal with the sheer power of the shot as its owner crashed to the valley floor. Quickly noticing that quite a few of the Mandalorians and batarians were heading towards the mines he wanted to save for the main force, Shepard didn't look away from his weapon as he released the spent heat sink before inserting a fresh one.

"Rassen, you're up."

Raising the sniper rifle before aiming down its sight once more, Shepard was barely able to make out the blur that tore from the mouth of the cave and headed directly for an approaching batarian. Rassen was even faster than he had guessed from hearing the account of his past, the Jedi almost invisible as he used the Force to augment his speed until he stopped before his target and cut him down with a single lightsaber stroke.

Trusting the other man could handle those close to him for the moment, Shepard switched priority to those going after Kasumi, focusing on the thief's last position just in time to see her dispatch another batarian with a blow to the neck before she rolled behind the second furthest ship from the cave, tossing a flashbang grenade as she retreated.

Turning away so he wouldn't be blinded, Shepard looked back to see that a single Mandalorian and several batarians had been caught unawares by the blast. Not trusting the former was as badly affected as the latter on account of their polarised visor, he fired at the Mandalorian first, the armoured figure staggering as they shifted at the last moment, the shot slamming into the rear of their helmet instead of the back of their neck as a result. Muttering a curse, Shepard's expression of frustration quickly vanished as the figure turned to face him, only for mass accelerator fire to riddle them from behind as Kasumi reappeared, waving in his direction before sprinting away from the still-recovering batarians and then firing at them once she was able to use the nearest ship as cover again.

The two of them made short work of the three lightly-armoured men between them, Kasumi vanishing once more as Shepard moved his attention back to Rassen, who was currently engaged in a duel, there really was no other word for it, with a single Mandalorian. Another lay dead on the ground nearby along with two batarians. Upon closer examination, Shepard realised the armoured warrior Rassen was engaged with seemed to be carrying a sword of some kind rather than something more similar to a lightsaber, the two of them trading blows as he watched until the Jedi sidestepped a stab that would have otherwise skewered him before plunging his glowing blade directly into the centre of the Mandalorian's armoured chest. After a brief moment the lightsaber melted through the thick metal, and Rassen swiftly pulled it free before heading towards the next closest enemy, a batarian, raising his weapon as the woman fired at him with an assault rifle and blocking each shot as he advanced.

Shaking his head as he realised he really had seen everything there was to see by this point, Shepard then turned to Shaela. "Go and make sure he doesn't get himself killed," he said, indicating Rassen, who was now being fired at by another couple of batarians on top of the first one. "I've got Kasumi." The quarian nodded before racing out of the cave, her emerald lightsaber snapping to life as she ran at full pelt towards the fighting.

* * *

As he continued to block the fire of the three batarians, Rassen's progress began to falter, leaving him only able to slowly walk towards them as he found himself having to concentrate almost entirely on protecting himself. His lightsaber hummed, an intricate web of blue as it disintegrated every shot before it could impact against his armour, the batarians staring at him in shock even as they continued to fire, screaming insults as they did so. Internally he was glad they only possessed semi-automatic mass accelerator weapons that were clearly outdated, given their poor rate of fire. Anything more sophisticated and he would have been in serious trouble.

A loud cracking noise from somewhere behind him signalled the death of another combatant somewhere ahead, presumably a Mandalorian or batarian who had been threatening Kasumi. Shepard had already taken several shots since telling him to attack. So far, as much as Rassen was aware, he had always hit his target. Another shot sounded as he managed to get within five metres of the batarians, no doubt being perfectly aimed as well.

One of his foes, mouth open in a roar as he continued to fire his assault rifle at the Jedi, suddenly turned his head to look at a point just over Rassen's shoulder, expression morphing into a look of shock. He stopped firing and began to point his weapon in that direction before starting to tighten his finger on the trigger again, only to be much too slow as Shaela sprinted past Rassen and directly towards him, lightsaber high as she brought it down in a diagonal slash. The emerald blade cut through his armour like it wasn't there, opening up a rift in his chest from shoulder to hip and dropping the batarian instantly.

One of the remaining two now switched his attention to the quarian, levelling his rifle at her and leaving just one to deal with Rassen. With the amount of fire he was being subjected to now minimal, the Jedi Knight had no difficulty in removing one hand from his lightsaber and lashing out with the Force, sending both batarians flying. They crashed to the ground after sailing ten metres through the air, and Rassen drew on the Force to guide him as he hurled his lightsaber at the nearest one, the sapphire blade spinning rapidly as it closed in and ended the man's life and then switched directions, killing the second batarian a moment later before returning to his hand.

"Are you all right?" a concerned voice asked from nearby.

He glanced over at Shaela. "I am fine," he replied, only then realising just how heavily he was panting and how thoroughly drenched in sweat he was on account of the planet's beyond stifling heat. "Did Shepard give you the go ahead?"

"He told me not to let you get yourself killed."

The Force screamed a warning and Rassen raised his lightsaber into the path of a blaster bolt, sending it back towards the woman who had fired it. The Mandalorian ducked behind her cover, which happened to be the nearest ship to the cave, the vessel standing perhaps twenty metres away from them, before leaning out to resume shooting, Rassen easily blocking her next few shots.

"Of course he did," he shouted, starting to run towards the lone Mandalorian. "Do you remember what I said a few minutes ago?"

"Yes!" Shaela yelled back, the green light of her lightsaber making her mask look turquoise as she began running alongside him. "Trust my instincts and use the Force!"

He opened his mouth to reply, only to watch in horror as the Mandalorian suddenly switched targets, no doubt realising she stood little chance of downing him with a blaster and deciding she might as well try her luck with Shaela. A bolt of scarlet energy exploded from her weapon, the familiar screaming noise only blaster fire could make filling his ears as the bolt sailed directly towards the quarian as she ran alongside him. In desperation Rassen lifted a hand to try and throw her aside with the Force, but he already knew there was no way he could push her out of the way in time.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as he watched Shaela's eyes widen at the sight of the bright red projectile racing straight for the centre of her chest. The quarian let out a yelp, green lightsaber rising awkwardly as the bolt closed in on her mercilessly, capable of easily killing her outright if it hit. She wasn't going to be able to do it. It was all his fault. If he had insisted they work on deflection training instead of Force healing—

And then the bolt was suddenly flying up into the sky.

Ignoring Shaela's cry of surprise, Rassen whipped round to face the Mandalorian, reaching out with a hand as he realised she was now close enough. The armoured warrior flew through the air towards him, and he swung at her, sapphire blade humming through the air as he brought it across her neck before sidestepping her corpse as it kept on going to strike the ground beyond him.

They had to keep moving. Staying still wasn't an option.

"Shaela," he managed, moving over to the quarian, who had remained where she was, staring at her lightsaber in awe. "We need to go and help—" he was interrupted by the sound of Shepard's rifle, "—Kasumi." He indicated the distant figures of the remaining Mandalorians and batarians, all of whom were converging on a point somewhere just behind the furthest ship, none of them aware all of their number that had come this way had been defeated.

She jumped slightly at the sound of his voice, her silver eyes wide as they focused on him. "Sorry," Shaela managed. "It's just, well…"

"I know," Rassen nodded, giving her a reassuring smile. "It must have felt strange doing it for the first time. Kasumi needs our help, though."

The quarian squared her shoulders. "Right. Let's go."

* * *

Rassen had been right on the money.

In the moment the Mandalorian had aimed her weapon at her, Shaela's life had flashed before her eyes. Growing up as a child on the Migrant Fleet, running away from her mother and hiding in the Kilal's various nooks and crannies, giggling all the while. Becoming an adult and being desperate to go on her Pilgrimage like all the other quarians her age. The nightmare that had been Omega, batarians at her heels, the knowledge that she might very well be about to die. Then Rassen saving her and everything that had happened since then, his voice sounding in her head and telling her what she needed to do as the Mandalorian's finger tightened on the trigger.

"Use your instincts. Use the Force."

Reality had returned to her, every nerve in her body screaming at her to act as the Force warned her of the incoming shot. So she had acted, moving her lightsaber between her and the projectile that could very easily have ended her life. As much as she had known it was her only chance, she hadn't entirely expected it to work. After all, she was essentially trying to block the blaster bolt with a glowing _sword_. Yes it was far more than just a simple cutting weapon, but despite Rassen's assurances earlier she could do it if she absolutely had to, Shaela had almost believed that had been the end for a moment.

She had obviously equipped and activated one of the kinetic barriers Wessa had given her along with the antibiotics and thermal clips when she had left Rannoch before getting into position earlier, but she doubted it would stop blaster fire. It was designed to protect the wearer against smaller and much faster moving projectiles; a blaster bolt might easily pass through a kinetic barrier unaffected. Despite that, she had still managed to survive what for most would have proven fatal, defending herself successfully, not that she could really believe how she had done it.

As she and Rassen tore past the first ship, the remaining Mandalorians and batarians noticed them, most breaking off their pursuit of Kasumi, who Shaela couldn't see, to begin shooting at them. Focusing on a single batarian at the edge of the group, she headed straight for him as Rassen sprinted towards a Mandalorian, a small gap opening between them as they went for their different targets.

She gritted her teeth as the batarian fired at her, using her instincts but it still taking all of her concentration to block the fire from his semi-automatic assault rifle, as it spat out projectiles that were much faster than the blaster bolt the Mandalorian from a few moments ago had sent at her. Her progress slowed, and she was then forced to stop advancing entirely as a second batarian opened fire on her. Breathing rapidly, Shaela continued to defend herself as best she could as a few shots she was unable to block struck her kinetic barrier, which flared blue as it managed to shield her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Rassen cut down the Mandalorian he was occupied with, and a round from Shepard downed a batarian a few metres away from the Jedi. There weren't too many left now. She just needed to hang on for a few moments longer.

Her barrier suddenly gave out, but then there was a flicker from behind one of the men shooting at her, Kasumi appearing a split-second later and bringing him down with same attack she had used so effectively on Watchman. The other batarian stopped firing, staring at the newcomer in shock for a moment before deciding that since Kasumi was closer to him, she was the greater threat. The thief backed away, about to reactivate her cloak, only to stagger slightly as a stray shot from nearby nearly hit her, leaving her still exposed as the batarian slowly brought his gun to bear on her, the human drawing her own weapon a fraction more slowly.

Shaela began racing towards the two of them. Even so, she knew she wouldn't make it in time. She had to do something, which was when she had what could only be described as a terrible idea.

"Hey!" she shouted as loudly as she could.

Against all the odds the batarian flinched at the sound of her voice, hesitating just long enough for her to reach him as he turned to look back at her. Lunging at him before he could react, Shaela winced as her lightsaber went straight through his chest, trying not to think about what she was doing as she looked over to see Rassen toss another batarian aside with the Force, the man hitting the ground with an audible crunch.

There was yet another booming noise from behind them, and Shaela looked ahead just in time to see a lone Mandalorian, who had been aiming at them from around the furthest ship, reel back as blood exploded out of his neck, his armoured form slamming to the green rock of the valley floor soon after.

Silence fell.

"Was that all of them?" Rassen asked, the human looking as though he might pass out at any moment on account of the heat. Shaela felt guilty for a moment as she deactivated her lightsaber and looked at him. She wouldn't say she was comfortable exactly in her suit, but she certainly wasn't suffering nearly as badly as he or Kasumi were.

"I don't know," the thief managed, causing Shaela to look at her as she bent over, hands on her knees. Her bodysuit was drenched with sweat, the black and grey material unable to disguise how soaked it was despite being darkly coloured. "How many did you guys get?"

"Two," Shaela replied, unable to prevent herself from feeling a small amount of embarrassment. Two. Out of _thirty_. She had already known she was the weakest in combat of the four of them, but she hadn't expected her own level to be so far below that of the others. True, one of them was the saviour of the galaxy and another a former member of his crew, but Shaela couldn't help feeling a little useless as the three of them stood there catching their breath.

She turned to Rassen when she noticed he had remained silent, frowning as she saw he had shut his eyes. She opened her mouth to ask him what was wrong, only for him to snap them open, a look of alarm on his face.

"I sense there is one left," he muttered. "A Mandalorian, I think."

Which was when a figure uncloaked right behind him.

Rassen turned, lightsaber humming, blocking the sword-like weapon the Mandalorian held as they brought it down on top of him, sending the Jedi staggering. As Shaela screamed his name and moved to help, the attacker lashed out with a kick, catching Rassen directly in the centre of his chest and knocking him to the ground, his lightsaber deactivating as it fell from his hand. With a battle cry the Mandalorian stabbed down with his weapon, which seemed to be emitting a faint hum noticeably different to that of a lightsaber, the tip poised to stab directly into the human's chest.

It stopped less than an inch from its destination as Shaela reactivated her own weapon and blocked it, straining against the armoured figure as he glanced up at her in surprise, seemingly not having noticed the steel and black coloured cylinder she held before he had attacked. The Mandalorian lifted his blade away from Rassen before slashing down at her, causing Shaela to raise her arms so she could stop the attack before it split her in two.

Straining against her noticeably stronger foe for a moment, she broke the lock and then ducked to the side as her opponent swung at her horizontally, causing the Mandalorian to nearly trip over Rassen as he struggled to regain his balance. The armoured warrior barely had time to look over at where she now stood as Shaela counterattacked with her emerald blade, lashing out with a strike that caught him directly across his unarmoured armpit, the lightsaber making its way several inches inside his body as she then thrust it deeper. Staring at her in shock, the Mandalorian attempted to say something, but before he could his blade fell from his hands and he collapsed to the ground, armour clanging as it struck the hard rock of the valley floor.

Panting, Shaela looked down at Rassen and offered him a hand. Taking it, the Jedi rose with her help, the two of them staring down at the body of the Mandalorian as it remained still. She barely heard Kasumi as she spoke, the thief whistling before she did so.

"Damn, big guy. Your girlfriend likes showing off as much as you do."


	27. Chapter 27

**A/N: Well, it's that time again.**

 **Responses to reviews are as follows:**

 **AnarionRising27: Thanks a lot! It's been a while since the story had a decent length fight scene, so I'm happy to hear you liked it.**

 **Egil the Skald: That's a good point, to be fair. It's been a while since I last played the ME games, so certain aspects of them aren't as fresh in my mind as I would like them to be. I've tweaked that slightly to make it more in keeping with the lore.**

 **Chapter 27: Recovery**

As she slowly ate from the tube of nutrient paste attached to the front of her mask, Shaela allowed her eyes to wander over the bunkroom's other occupants. They had all survived the events of a few hours ago with minimal consequences, only Rassen receiving any form of injury, and that had simply been a nasty bruise on his chest from being kicked by the Mandalorian who had ambushed him. The Jedi Knight had promptly healed himself without difficulty, but the whole situation didn't sit well with her.

Despite the fact that had she not deflected the blaster bolt from earlier successfully she would have died, Shaela had a horrible feeling everything had been a little too easy. It reinforced Shepard's statement that far more Mandalorians and batarians were currently heading for their positon. Given long-range communications were still down, it was still the case that none of them had the slightest idea when help would arrive. No, the worst was yet to come.

Shepard and Kasumi were sitting next to each other on a bed a few metres away from the one Shaela herself was sitting on, the two of them talking about something in quiet voices. Now they knew for sure their location had been found, the four of them had decided to enable all of the systems they had switched off. They still might not be able to call for help successfully, but they would at least be able to detect Mandalore and Balak's ships once they arrived in the planet's atmosphere. They had connected their omni-tools to the ship's VI, meaning they would be notified the second they had company. As a result, the four of them were able to catch a few moments of peace and, judging by how Shepard and Kasumi were barely talking above a whisper, privacy.

Turning her gaze away from them and trying to focus on something else so she wouldn't overhear anything about a topic that clearly was not meant for her, Shaela found her attention now turning to the man next to her, who had been almost silent since they had defeated the initial force. She was convinced something was troubling him, but she couldn't think of the right way to broach the topic, and so she had initially decided to give him some time to process whatever it was before asking him about it.

Rassen hadn't looked at her much during the time they had spent sat together resting, but the stony expression on his face whenever she glanced at him was leaving her increasingly convinced that whatever was bothering him wasn't going to be something he resolved on his own any time soon. After another few minutes she reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder, causing the human to stiffen at the contact, though he didn't look at her.

"Rassen," she said gently, detaching the now empty tube and placing it on the floor next to the bed before moving closer to him, "is something wrong? You seem a bit distracted."

The human didn't respond verbally at first, but if anything his expression grew more sombre, giving away that whatever he was keeping to himself was perhaps even worse than she had first assumed. "There is something I need to tell you," he said at last, finally looking at her, his exhaustion as a result of being out in Venture's brutal heat doing nothing to diminish the intensity of his stare. "I told you the whole truth of what occurred while we were apart, and I do not want there to be any secrets between us, Shaela. At the same time, though, I worry that telling you will only make you more worried about our current situation than you already are."

Swallowing despite having finished her food more than a minute ago, she shuffled even closer to him before leaning against his shoulder. "I don't think that's possible," she muttered. "What's coming for us… I know it's going to be bad, Rassen. Keelah, I can _sense_ it's going to be bad."

Rassen sighed before gently shrugging her off and getting up from the bed. She felt her heart sink for a moment before he offered her a hand and pulled her to her feet when she took it. "We need to meditate for a moment," he explained as Shepard and Kasumi turned at the sound of them getting up. "We will be in the cargo hold if you need us."

"Understood," Shepard nodded, Kasumi giving them a small wave as the Jedi Knight walked to the door, Shaela hurrying after him as she felt her concern only continuing to grow.

They made their way to the cargo hold in silence, neither of them speaking during the brief period it took them to get there despite how badly Shaela wanted to ask Rassen what was wrong. The Jedi Knight opened the door once they arrived, revealing the stacks of crates pressed up against the walls before entering and then stepping to the side to allow her in. Muttering a quiet thank you, Shaela walked past him before turning as Rassen shut the door behind her and turned himself, leaving the two of them facing one another. It was then she noticed she had begun shifting her weight from one leg to the other, causing her to make a noise of frustration as she tried to stop herself from shifting, only to scowl at Rassen as he laughed quietly.

"I missed that, you know," the human said, nodding towards her legs before lowering himself to the floor and sitting down on the hard metal. "While we were separated, I mean."

Shaela huffed but allowed herself a small smile when she heard him laugh again as she sat down herself, both of them sitting cross-legged with their knees almost touching they were so close. "Why, though?" she asked curiously. "Of all the things to miss, why that?"

"Because…" Rassen seemed to struggle for the words he wanted for a moment. "Because… that habit is so, well, _you_ , Shaela. I really have no idea how to express it better than that." His expression suddenly darkened, causing her smile to fade. "I kept secrets from you before," he muttered. "On Omega and then on this ship. Both times I hurt you doing that. I never wanted that to happen."

"I know."

Rassen nodded before continuing. "I am tired of keeping things from you. It never ends well, and you deserve the truth. You have always deserved the truth."

He took a deep breath, clearly trying to decide how to continue, causing her to lean closer, gently taking the human's face in her hands so she could kiss him, a spike of frustration flaring up when her mouthpiece pressed against his lips, leaving them separated by the barrier her mask provided. If she could take it off for just a moment… No, Shaela squashed that thought before the temptation could grow too strong. She might have made a relatively speedy recovery after last time, but she knew there was probably not even the slightest chance she would be better before the main Mandalorian and batarian force arrived if she removed the object in front of her face now. No matter how much she wanted to, they couldn't take the risk.

Rassen clearly picked up on her frustration, the human sliding one arm around her shoulders and the other around her lower back as the two of them remained in that position, as close to actually kissing as was possible without doing it. After a moment, though, she felt him pull back, and he gave her a sad smile as a few inches separated their faces.

"Soon, if we survive."

" _When_ ," she corrected automatically. "When we survive, Rassen."

"Of course." His expression darkened again, and Shaela braced herself for what he would say next. She knew she almost certainly wouldn't like it, but she still wanted to hear it all the same.

"I heard Zaressh's voice again."

Her heart dropped into her stomach. "When?" she asked reluctantly. "Today?"

"No," Rassen said slowly, avoiding eye contact for a moment before he seemed to summon the will to look back at her. "After my first sparring session with Shepard. While you were still building your lightsaber."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, feeling a stab of frustration but mainly concern. "You know I'm always here for you, Rassen."

"I know," he replied, sighing deeply. "In truth, so much happened so quickly afterwards that I forgot to tell you. I fully intended to at the time, Shaela, but you seemed so excited about your lightsaber that I could not bring myself to do it then. I am sorry it has taken this long."

"That's okay," the quarian whispered, adjusting her position so she could lean against the human's side, her head now resting on his shoulder. "What did… what did _he_ say, then?"

Rassen's jaw tightened. "He told me that Shepard and Kasumi's situation is similar to what ours, yours and mine, was on Omega and that something like us being separated could happen to them… or something equally bad could happen to you."

She nodded slowly, thinking through what she had heard carefully. "And do you believe him?" she asked finally.

"Yes and no." The frustration and anger in the Jedi's voice was obvious. "I still have no idea what heeven is. On the one hand, I want to believe everything he tells me is false. An attempt to undermine my confidence and make me doubt myself… but the Force is a powerful thing, Shaela. Through it, it is possible to achieve a degree of precognition on occasion, though who learns what often varies between individuals. The future is always shifting, changing, responding to events occurring in the present. Even so, it is possible that if the voice really does belong to Zaressh and is not some part of me using his voice…"

Rassen trailed off, leaving her to finish his sentence. "Then he might know something we don't," she muttered. "He might already know how this all ends."

"Exactly."

She looked up at him. "Do you want my advice?" she asked softly.

"Always."

Shaela reached a hand up to cup the side of Rassen's face. "Ignore him," she replied firmly. "You can't trust anything he says. I know it's going to be hard, Rassen, but we can do this. _Together_. All four of us are going to survive. Then you and I are going to go to Rannoch like we agreed. I'll introduce you to my family, and, um…" she blushed as the human tilted his head at her pause.

"Since proper homes are still being built on Rannoch, we don't have much until they're ready. There are plenty of, um, clean rooms in the hospital, though."

"Clean rooms?"

Shaela huffed for the second time that day as she noticed the human was struggling to keep himself from laughing at her embarrassment. A thought suddenly occurred to her on how to turn the tables, and she allowed herself to grin before twisting sideways, placing a knee on the ground on either side of Rassen's hips and moving her hands to his shoulders. Grin widening as the Jedi Knight went very still, she leaned in next to one of his ears before speaking.

"Specially prepared rooms with almost no microbes where quarians can remove their suits. _Every_ part of their suits, in fact. They're normally used for treatment, of course, but there were a few free the last time I was there." Shaela felt extremely nervous as she spoke, but the way the man beneath her barely seemed to be breathing gave her the confidence to continue without her voice giving it away. "I'm sure you can see the other use they have."

She heard herself gasp as Rassen's arms, still encircling her shoulders and lower back, pulled her down against him slightly, leaving their fronts just touching. "Perhaps," he whispered next to the side of her head. "But then again, perhaps not. Why not tell me just to be safe?"

 _Ancestors have mercy._

"I…" she managed, barely aware that her hands had begun to move down from Rassen's shoulders to his chest, as his hand on the small of her back had begun to rub circles there. "I…" she tried again, her breathing as shallow as that of the man beneath her as she noticed with a gulp that his pupils had dilated.

The moment instantly shattered as the door to the cargo hold opened, revealing Shepard, whose expression caused the two of them to instantly spring apart. Much like in the case of Kasumi when she had interrupted them, the commander either didn't notice or didn't pay any mind to the fact he had just barged in on a private moment, but demanding an answer as to why he had was the furthest thing from Shaela's mind as he gave both of them a look that told her what was happening just as effectively as words ever could.

* * *

As her omni-tool pinged to tell her she had received a message, Wessa turned away from the patient she had been talking to, gesturing for a nearby colleague to take care of the quarian behind her, who had suffered a suit breach. The poor man, a construction worker, had managed to immediately administer several powerful antibiotics to himself after multiple pieces of debris had lacerated part of his enviro-suit, which had thankfully prevented his condition from being life-threatening, the fact they were on Rannoch also helping. However, the violence with which he had been coughing was enough for him to require a short stint in professional care until he showed some improvement.

Opening the message as quickly as she could, the matriarch was at first unable to read its contents properly, as her eyes darted from one word to the next at a breakneck pace. Taking a deep breath to calm herself somewhat, she tried again, forcing herself to try and process the information before her at a reasonable speed.

The message was from one of Admiral Hackett's secretaries, not surprising given just how busy he had to be currently with the amount of reconstruction that still needed to be done. Wessa's brow furrowed as she read further and further, feeling a growing sense of relief as well as increasing confusion. Apparently she and Shaela's parents had not received the only call for help regarding a rescue of Commander Shepard, someone else who was with the quarian having also requested assistance. The message rather deliberately didn't say who that someone was, but it did reveal that whoever they were, they had a close working relationship with someone in a position of considerable authority, who had reassured the admiral that what the sender had claimed was almost certainly true and that it would be wise to send a small force to at least investigate.

Wessa's curiosity was certainly piqued now. There were only a handful of people in the galaxy the mysterious individual who had convinced Hackett could be. Her omni-tool suddenly pinged again, the device reminding her that she had scheduled an appointment with Shaela's parents that was due to begin shortly. Well, appointment was perhaps not the correct word. Neither of them were unwell in any way, but almost as soon as she had received Shaela's message and then forwarded it to the admiral, they had contacted her themselves, no doubt having seen she had received the message much like she had noticed they had.

It taken a great deal of willpower to inform them both that she couldn't meet with them immediately, although every part of her had wanted to. Shaela was one of her best students, and Wessa also considered the young quarian a friend. However, she had dozens of patients, some in serious condition, to consider, and she would have been unable to help them the next day if she had gone gallivanting off to meet with Shaela's parents in the middle of the night. It had not sat well with her at all that she had chosen to try and get some sleep instead, but the asari knew that Shaela would be horrified if she were to find out that those in the hospital had been neglected for her benefit.

With some time set aside to speak with the quarian's parents, though, Wessa had already made sure that everyone else could do without her for that brief period. As a result, she had no hesitation when it came to informing the same doctor from before that she had to leave for a moment but would return as fast as she could. Receiving a distracted nod from the salarian, who didn't even look away from his patient as he worked, the asari set off for her office, determined not to keep Shaela's mother and father waiting. Rissel would be there as well, actually. Shaela's younger sister had handled her older sibling's duties at the hospital very well indeed so far, and she knew its layout well enough by now that the matriarch had no doubt she was already with her parents, the three of them impatiently waiting for her.

As she walked quickly through the cobbled together but still spotlessly clean halls that led to her office, Wessa found her mind travelling back to the question of just who the individual that had influenced Hackett could be. Surely it had to be a government official, and a highly ranked one at that. Who else would have the ability to sway one of the most powerful people in the galaxy so easily?

* * *

Groaning as she leaned back in her chair, both hands massaging her crest as she did so, Liara allowed her eyes to drift shut for a moment. She needed to sleep, badly. But she couldn't. She was too pent up emotionally, much too nervous to rest despite how her body cried out for it.

Ever since she had received Kasumi's message about how she, the strange man she had encountered, and a quarian called Shaela were attempting to rescue Shepard from Balak, someone she unfortunately remembered only too well, anything close to sleep had been unattainable. The revelation that Shepard was alive had been the best news since the war with the Reapers had ended. While she like most everyone else who knew him hadn't truly believed he had died, knowing for sure that he was alive was an amazing feeling.

But he was being held by a monster who had once attempted to wipe out an entire colony of innocents, and only three people were going after him.

For all of her agents, all of her resources, Liara had no idea whether Kasumi had been successful in the time it had taken for her message to arrive. Horizon was still silent, meaning her worst case guess, that the colony had been destroyed, was looking increasingly likely. The entire system was still dark, in fact, and while she had already sent a message asking Kasumi for more information, she had no idea when the thief would receive it. Given communications had been continually getting worse in that area for some still unknown reason, it might never arrive for all she knew.

The one productive thing she had been able to accomplish, however, had been ensuring Kasumi's message had reached someone with the ships to help her. Liara herself had possessed considerable resources upon taking over as the Shadow Broker, but much of what she had… inherited from the previous holder of the position had been lost thanks to the Reapers, her network of informers having suffered a considerable blow in particular. Admiral Hackett, though, she knew he would be able to help Shepard.

While many in the galaxy knew of the Shadow Broker's capabilities when it came to acquiring any kind of information imaginable, Liara was well aware that Hackett would have to at least mention where he had got the message from to some of the Alliance's other high-ranking members. While some of its more… conservative elements might be sceptical of the fact it had come from her, they would be more inclined to trust her word than the word of the Shadow Broker, whose aims were unknown to and often unnerved many.

As a result, she had sent him the message as Liara T'soni rather than as her secret identity, and she had received a reply soon after. While he was desperately trying to restore stability to the galaxy, Hackett was willing to send a small fleet to help Kasumi rescue Shepard, and the organisation of such a force had begun even before he had sent her confirmation.

She had then done everything she could to ease the preparations along. Required supplies had turned up with surprising speed, almost as soon as a request for them was put in, enough of the Broker's network remaining for her to assist preparations while making it look as though it was merely good luck. Again, she doubted the higher ups in the Alliance would approve if they knew the Shadow Broker was helping them. As it was, she had been careful to keep her involvement as the galaxy's most powerful information broker as subtle as possible.

While she had no way to know if the force would arrive in time, she did know it was about to set off, which unfortunately meant she didn't have time to slip an agent with a convincing identity aboard one of the ships without arousing suspicion. With unnecessary spaceflight heavily restricted as a result of the lack of resources and communications poor even outside of the area around Horizon, Liara doubted any members of the Normandy's past crews would be able to join in time. She herself could have made it, but doing so would have meant diverting a ship so she could reach the Alliance vessels before they set off, or using the requisitioned ship to head directly to Aratoht. Unfortunately, the only ones she knew for sure that were in working order and could get her to either location in time were all currently involved in assisting refugees with medical care.

Even so, she had sent messages to everyone who had ever fought beside Shepard on either Normandy. Hopefully some of them would be able to reach the task force and join it in time if they were close enough inside Alliance space.

And hopefully the task force itself would arrive before it was too late.

* * *

"How many do you think?" Rassen asked, a sinking feeling in his stomach as he saw the number of dots heading towards them as he stared out of the cockpit. He couldn't count them properly at the distance they were currently; it was too difficult to differentiate between the different ships at this range and so he kept counting the same ones multiple times by mistake. All he knew for sure was that there were a lot more than three… And a surprise attack, even one as well executed as the one they had used earlier, had no chance against so many.

"I don't know," Shepard replied, the older man's expression a grim mask as he likewise surveyed the approaching vessels. "My best guess is somewhere around three-hundred troops, though how many of those are Mandalorians and how many are batarians I have no idea."

"How many mines do we have set?" Shaela asked, her presence reassuring Rassen a little as she stood next to him, holding one of his hands as she likewise stared at the dots gradually increasing in size.

"Not enough," Kasumi shrugged, her attempt to appear nonchalant and raise spirits appreciated but not working as she struggled to smile convincingly. "Enough to slow them down and buy us time, though. Plus I can lock down the ship's ramp and all of its doors. They'll have to either override my program, which I don't see happening, or they'll have to blow through them with explosives."

"And how much time do you think all of that will give us?" Rassen asked. "Assuming we all survive until they run out of rooms to search."

The thief tried to give him an optimistic smile, but it came across more like a grimace. "I really don't know, Ras. It comes down to how many explosives they have and how many of them are familiar with proximity mines."

"We'll just have to hope that's long enough," Shepard stated firmly.

Rassen turned his attention back to him as the other man gave him a determined look before his gaze moved to Shaela and then finally Kasumi. "We know your messages from earlier almost definitely got through, and we know the Alliance will at least investigate what happened to Horizon," Shepard continued. "We might be on our own now, but hopefully we won't be for much longer. If we watch each other's backs out there, we can all make it out of this."

Despite the situation, Rassen couldn't stop the corner of his mouth from twitching upwards. Glancing at Shaela and Kasumi, he noticed they too were looking fractionally more positive. Turning his attention back to Shepard again, he blinked in surprise as the other man stepped closer to him, gripping his shoulder tightly, the commander's gaze so intense it seemed to stare into his soul.

"We can do this, kid. Are you with me?"

He could feel Shaela and Kasumi's eyes boring into the back of his head. Despite that, Rassen strangely didn't feel pressured into giving the response that was expected. The determination, the drive in Shepard's eyes convinced him in that moment that they could survive, that they could hold out for long enough for help to arrive, no matter how long it took.

Obviously Shepard had no idea if that was really the case, and Rassen knew he didn't. Despite that, however, he found in that moment he really did believe the older man. Now it began to truly dawn on him why Shepard had been so integral to the fight against the Reapers. It wasn't that he was an excellent soldier, not really. The truth was that Shepard was a leader who could inspire others to take on impossible odds and make them feel like they could overcome them.

Nodding once, Rassen allowed himself a small smile. "I am with you, Shepard," he replied firmly.

"I am, too," Shaela announced, still holding his hand but shifting closer and looking up at him before moving her gaze to Shepard, eyes filled with conviction as she too nodded.

All three of them turned to look at Kasumi as she wordlessly approached before pushing Shepard's hand off his shoulder and pressing her lips to the commander's, causing Rassen to raise an eyebrow while Shaela let out a quiet noise that sounded almost like a squeal. While he had guessed something of a romantic nature had occurred between them after the thief had gone to wait for Shepard to return to the ship, he hadn't known for sure, and Shaela hadn't told him what she and Kasumi had spoken about, meaning he was still rather out of the loop. Turning to look at the quarian as she stared at the couple with both hands over her mouthpiece, he shook his head at her reaction before returning his gaze to Shepard as the commander and thief broke apart after a moment, both of them grinning like idiots.

"Right…" Shepard trailed off, taking a moment to compose himself before continuing. "Everybody take up positions near the mouth of the cave. We hold them there for as long as we can. When they get through the mines, we fall back to the ship."

* * *

As his gaze moved over the small army of Mandalorians and batarians assembling in the valley below them, he checked his sniper rifle one last time. Glancing over at where Rassen and Shaela were crouching just to the right of the cave's entrance and then at Kasumi, who was on the left, Shepard gave each of them a nod before aiming down his weapon's telescopic sight in order to get a better idea of what they were up against.

As expected, the batarians were definitely far more numerous than the Mandalorians. While he couldn't tell the exact ratio for sure, they had to outnumber the armoured warriors at least three to one, though their comparative lack of organisation and personal protection made them less of a threat individually. Still, when there were so many of them, such observations didn't provide much reassurance.

Keeping his gaze focused solely on the individuals below him, Shepard strained to catch any sign of either Balak or Mandalore. Taking either or both of them down before their troops advanced towards their position might well throw the force into disarray, at least for a time. Given they needed every advantage they could get, removing them from the picture had to be a priority.

As the minutes passed with the teeming mass of batarians and Mandalorians only growing as more and more emerged from their ships, which they had been forced to land in a line stretching down the valley like the advance force had, Venture's stiflingly hot atmosphere grew tenser and tenser, the anticipation within the small army palpable despite how far away they were. A ripple suddenly went through the crowd as some members of it seemingly received the order to advance, a few squads comprised solely of batarians starting to break away from the main group before aiming their weapons at the cave as they shouted to each other to provide cover.

A minute passed before the two dozen or so individuals reached the base of the slope and began to ascend it, only to stop after a few metres as one of their number froze, the blood draining from his face visible to Shepard despite how far away he was. The batarian turned to shout at his comrades, only to vanish from sight as a proximity mine detonated right in front of him, obscuring him from view as the explosion threw a cloud of green rock and dust into the air.

Even as far back as he was, the noise still caused Shepard to wince at its volume as he manoeuvred the sight of his weapon onto one of the batarians he could still see before squeezing the trigger. The shot smashed through the man's kinetic barrier like it wasn't there, sending him crashing backwards to roll down the bottommost part of the slope like a ragdoll.

The other members of the advance party began firing wildly at the cave entrance, but none of their shots were even close to hitting anyone as Shepard fired twice more, dropping another couple of their number just as another batarian advanced slightly too far, the mine he triggered taking out both him and three more who were right behind him.

Breathing calmly, he slipped a fresh heat sink into his rifle after discarding the old one, allowing the remainder of the batarians to retreat back to the main force, their shouts audible but incomprehensible at this distance.

"What are they doing?" he heard Shaela ask, causing him to glance over at the quarian as she peered around the rock she was hiding behind in confusion, shifting her weight in anticipation as she stared down at the mass of enemies. The first wave hadn't got close enough to the cave for her, Rassen, or Kasumi to even remotely be in range to do anything, causing Shepard to feel a small amount of sympathy for her. There were few things as disconcerting as being in danger but not being able to do anything about it.

"Preparing for their next move," he replied simply, returning his attention to the main body as the surviving batarians re-joined it. "Mandalore or Balak, whoever ordered it, that was a test. They knew we wiped out their advance force, but they didn't know what exactly we're capable of. Now they know for sure we've been preparing, and they know there's a minefield."

"You understand large-scale military tactics the best of any of us, Shepard," Rassen began. "How do you think they will proceed?"

Shepard glanced in the Jedi's direction. "They'll wait to see if we have anything else in store for them. Once they realise that's our most effective trick, they'll send someone in to clear the mines while the rest of them provide covering fire. Either that or they'll launch a mad rush without caring at all about casualties, but I doubt it. They know the Alliance will investigate Horizon at some point and that they will pick up something is happening here on Venture pretty quickly. As desperately as Balak and Mandalore want to get hold of us, they'll want to lose as few of their people as possible doing so."

Realising one of the group had remained silent, he looked over at Kasumi, only to realise with a start that she had already been looking at him, amber eyes piercing in their intensity despite the short distance between them. Returning her gaze, Shepard made himself a silent promise. They would all get out of here somehow. He hadn't fought the Reapers and escaped death twice for it all to end here. No matter what, they would escape.

Somehow.


	28. Chapter 28

**A/N: Here's another chapter because why not. This one proved really difficult to put together for some reason.**

 **Responses to reviews are as follows:**

 **Guest: I've already responded to another guest reviewer who made the same point. The crystal was not made from omni-gel. That was explicitly mentioned earlier in the story.**

 **AnarionRising27: Great to hear! Not long to go now. Plenty of cool stuff to come, though.**

 **Guest (False Masks: Chapter 9): Thank you. :)**

 **Chapter 28: Stalemate**

As Wessa had expected, the moment she opened the door to her office, three quarians turned to face her. They were each sitting just in front of her desk in chairs of the same cheap yet durable model common to medical facilities across the galaxy, practicality taking priority over comfort in the case of the off-white pieces of furniture. To be honest though, it was fortunate she even had enough chairs, given the shortage of virtually everything that had resulted from the war with the Reapers. While they were hideously uncomfortable, they were still chairs at the end of the day.

Her desk was positioned near to the far wall from the perspective of someone entering the room, a chair of the same design as the first three sitting behind it, meaning the asari matriarch had to carefully squeeze her way past her three guests to get there, given the office was rather cramped. She could have demanded a more generous work area, of course, but Wessa had never been one for excessive space. She much preferred to be out actively helping her patients when she could, the office really a necessity borne out of the unfortunate requirement for someone in her position that was paperwork rather than being something she actually wanted.

Settling herself into her chair and resting her forearms on her equally as unadorned and simple desk, Wessa allowed her eyes to move between the different family members in front of her, all of whom were waiting for her to speak with varying levels of patience. On the left sat Rissel, who was the most obviously on edge in terms of body language of the three quarians, the green-suited young woman unable to remain still as she fidgeted, her eyes darting around the small room as her feet tapped against the ground. She stilled slightly, however, and gave Wessa a small nod as she noticed the matriarch was looking at her. The asari returned the nod before moving her gaze to the person next to her.

In the middle sat Rissel and Shaela's mother, her grey enviro-suit the least eye-catching of the ones in the office, though the colour was still attractive thanks to a light fixture above her causing it to appear as a range of hues instead of just one. Her gaze, unlike her daughter's, remained trained on Wessa without so much as wavering, but her eyes were as filled with desperation at the thought of Shaela being in danger as Rissel's were.

Finally, on the right sat Shaela and Rissel's father, his enviro-suit coloured a darker shade of yellow than Wessa herself would have picked as he surveyed her grimly. That same desire to help his eldest daughter was every bit as present in his eyes as his partner's, but there was also a considerable amount of anger in his gaze. The asari hoped his fury was due to the fact that those holding Commander Shepard captive might seek to do Shaela harm rather than being due to her choice not to see them immediately. Internally she steeled herself. She had made a decision not to prioritise her student over the dozens whose care she oversaw, something she knew Shaela would have agreed with. She would stand by that decision if challenged.

"I'm sorry I couldn't meet with you right away," she began, looking between the three family members as she spoke, making eye contact with each of them in turn. "Please believe me when I say I wanted to. With so many still needing medical help, though, I had to prioritise those under my care."

"And Shaela isn't?" the room's only male occupant, Jaral—Wessa remembered—retorted, voice low as his gaze bore into her own. "She's spent months helping you. Isn't that worth anything?"

"Dad!" Rissel gasped, the youngest member of the family staring at her father in disbelief before shooting Wessa an apologetic look. "How can you say something like that? Of course Wessa cares about Shaela, she just has lots of other people to worry about as well."

Wessa gave Rissel a grateful look before continuing. "In case you have forgotten," she replied acidly, matching Jaral's look with one of equal intensity, "I let her borrow the ship she needed. You may not be aware, however, of the fact that vessel is the last thing I have left of my bondmate. I would ask you not to doubt that I care about your daughter a great deal."

"Matriarch," Shaela's mother—her name was Visela, if memory served—interjected, "all of us know you care about Shaela," she shot a pointed look at the man sitting next to her before continuing, "but even though she's been gone for days, we've only received one message from her, which we think you got as well. Did you receive the same message about Commander Shepard?"

Wessa nodded. "I did," she said, taking a deep breath to calm herself before continuing. She hadn't meant to lose her temper like that, but she had nonetheless. "I almost couldn't believe what I was reading. Shaela told me she was going to help her boyfriend and that it could be dangerous. I assumed she would find him and then they would return to Rannoch. Why she has decided to involve herself in a quest to rescue the commander I have no idea."

"Matriarch," Jaral said softly, causing her to glance sharply at him, though her expression softened at the look in his eyes now, "my daughter could be in serious danger. We don't own a ship and even if we did, getting the fuel for it would be impossible given the current restrictions on spaceflight. Is there anything you can do to help her?"

"No," she replied, shaking her head. "I gave Shaela all the assistance I could before she left. However," at this she activated her omni-tool, gesturing for the three quarians to rise so they could move closer, "I was able to contact someone else who can."

* * *

He really did feel as though he might pass out at any moment.

Sweat ran down his face in thick rivulets, dripping from his chin to the ground beneath him as he sat next to the mouth of the cave, his body concealed from the view of those outside by the large rock he was propped up against. Rassen could honestly say he didn't think he'd ever been this hot before. He certainly thought he would remember it if he had been.

Glancing in the direction of the pair of eyes he could feel staring at him in concern, he tried to give Shaela a reassuring smile, although it was doubtful he succeeded in making her feel any better about his current condition. Of the four of them, she was the only one who was at least partially able to stomach the brutal temperature, her enviro-suit protecting her from the heat for the most part, though he could tell she too was uncomfortable.

"It has to be your turn soon," Shaela said worriedly, glancing in the direction of the ship before looking back at him. "Kasumi has been in there for a while already."

Rassen shook his head. "Give her a bit longer," he managed. "She was almost unconscious earlier. She needs it more than I do."

Feeling his eyes slowly drift shut, Rassen had to admit that Mandalore and Balak's plan was an ingenious one. Instead of following up their probing force by trying to clear the mines immediately, they had instead seemingly opted to wait, rotating their troops so some would take shelter within their ships while the others would continue to monitor the cave. With so many at their command, they were able to ensure that a sizable number were ready to fight at any given moment despite Venture's heat.

The four of them had decided upon realising what their enemies were doing to do the same, meaning they had taken to cycling between Shepard, Kasumi, and himself, one of them spending half an hour or so inside the ship where it was cooler before another took their place. While he had initially tried to insist that Shaela should get out of the heat as well, she had quickly dismissed the idea, arguing that her suit protected her well enough that it was not nearly as bad for her. As he forced his eyes back open to find her still giving him a worried look, Rassen could tell she hadn't been exaggerating when she had said that. If she had the energy to worry about him, that was proof enough.

"You can't take much more of this Rassen," the quarian insisted. "If you don't get out of this soon, you're going to get heat stroke."

"She's right, kid," interjected Shepard, who looked as bad as Rassen felt as the Jedi glanced over to find him staring down the sight of his rifle at the valley below with sweat pouring down his face. "Right at the start of endurance training in the Alliance, a lot of recruits thought that if they were determined enough they could keep going almost indefinitely. While most of them survived everything that was thrown at them without any long-term problems, some insisted on overdoing it and made themselves seriously unwell. We'll give Kasumi another couple of minutes, and then it's your turn."

Nodding reluctantly as Shepard looked over, Rassen then peered around the side of the rock and down at the Mandalorians and batarians below. They had to make a move eventually. Mandalore had even said she knew the Alliance would come to investigate what had happened to Horizon, had been counting on it even, which meant they couldn't wait forever. Even so, there was still no sign that anything had changed from the way it was several hours ago, even when he reached out with the Force to make sure.

 _So what are they planning?_

He moved back fully behind cover, about to ask Shepard if he had any ideas, only to glance over at the ship as the ramp lowered and Kasumi emerged from the vessel. The thief looked exhausted, but she did at least seem a little better than she had before she had entered it. Nodding to the other two as they looked at him, Rassen slowly rose to his feet and headed towards Kasumi as she approached from the other direction, the two of them passing one another with a quiet acknowledgment. Neither of them had the energy to do much more.

As he placed one foot on the ramp, Rassen suddenly felt something. A slight shift at the edge of perception. A warning through the Force. Turning around to find Shaela looking back at him, her silver eyes wide as she sensed it too, he hurried back to where he had just been, prompting a look of alarm from Shepard and Kasumi.

"Something is about to happen," he explained quickly. "I have no idea what exactly, but the Force is telling me they are about to make a move."

"Are you sure?" Shepard asked, the other man's voice slightly doubtful. "It's definitely the Force and not exhaustion?"

"I felt it as well," Shaela interjected, causing everyone's attention to turn to her. The quarian looked down at the valley for a moment as she continued. "Like Rassen said, though, I don't… Wait. What's that?"

Moving over to her side, Rassen squinted for a moment before spotting the lone batarian who was venturing away from the bulk of the army and towards them. While he could see the individual in a small amount of detail at this range, he couldn't quite make out the weapon he was holding clearly enough to tell what it was beyond the fact it appeared to be a firearm of some kind. It was coloured a jet black and was rather bulky in appearance, with a barrel that seemed almost too wide for the rest of it. Whatever it was, it didn't look like either a blaster or a mass accelerator weapon.

Staring at the figure in confusion for a moment, Rassen's eyes then widened as the batarian suddenly aimed his firearm in the direction of the cave before tilting it slightly upwards and pulling the trigger. There was no gunshot. Instead there was a barely audible coughing sound as, with a trail of white smoke of some kind spraying out behind it as it arced through the air, something landed near the top of the slope before beginning to roll down the incline, more smoke spraying from it in all directions as soon as it made contact with the ground. The batarian fired again at another point high up the slope, another projectile—another shell, Rassen suddenly realised—landing with a trail of the same gas following it through the air before it too began spraying smoke in all directions.

"They're trying to blind us so they can disarm the mines," he heard Shepard grunt, the commander beginning to aim at the batarian just as the latter disappeared behind the smokescreen, which was growing at an astonishing pace. Shepard cursed as he tried to relocate his target, but Rassen just about managed to hear several more coughing noises as the first tendrils of smoke began to enter the cave.

"I think it's harmless," Kasumi announced, causing him to look at her to see the thief had retaken her place at the left-hand side of the cave mouth. Her omni-tool was active as she scanned the continually growing artificial cloud that was now even managing to partially block out Venture's unbelievably harsh sunlight. "That thing have a thermal imaging scope, Shep?" she asked, not looking away from her wrist.

"No," Shepard replied, the frustration in his voice obvious to Rassen despite his exhaustion. "I take it your Locust hasn't either?"

"No."

"Neither does my pistol," Shaela added, the quarian having attached the firearm to her hip after the first hour of waiting.

"Damn it," Shepard muttered, still looking down his scope as he attempted to catch even the slightest glimpse of a target, not that there was any chance of that. "I didn't see any guns with something that would be useful on the ship when I looked through our weapons earlier. We won't be able to see them until they're right on top of us."

"Perhaps we do not need to see them," Rassen said slowly, unclipping his lightsaber from his side and resting his thumb over the activation switch as the others turned at the sound of his voice. "While the presence of so many nearby will make it difficult, I should be able to sense those they send to clear the mines through the Force. I may be able to catch them by surprise and take them out before they disable too many."

Shepard was shaking his head before he had even finished. "That's too risky," the older man argued. "As soon as everyone inside the smokescreen realises what's happening, they'll start panic firing at anything they think is nearby… assuming they don't have thermal imaging scopes themselves, which they almost certainly have if they're smart."

"I know," Rassen nodded. "I can protect myself against projectile fire, though, Shepard. As long as I move quickly I should be fine."

"I'm coming with you."

He turned to face Shaela. "Not this time," he replied firmly. As the quarian's mouthpiece blinked blue, he elaborated before she could protest.

"I would not be surprised if a few commandoes like the ones we encountered on Watchman attempt to sneak through the smokescreen despite the minefield, possibly using their stealth field generators to make them even harder to notice." He turned to gesture to Shepard and Kasumi. "We need someone here who can detect them if they try something like that. If both of us go after the mine clearers, we leave the ship vulnerable."

"I'll go with you."

Rassen turned as Kasumi approached, her submachine gun held loosely at her side as she reached the two of them. "You don't know how to reactivate the mines if they manage to disable too many of them, big guy. I can do that, and this way you have support."

"I should go instead," Shepard said instantly, giving the thief a concerned look as he walked over to join her. "You don't have any real protection beyond your kinetic barrier, Kasumi. If they do have thermal imaging scopes, then this," he tapped his chestplate to empathise his point, "will at least do something against a direct hit."

Rassen looked back at Kasumi as she crossed her arms before replying. "Sorry, Shep," the thief said gently, "but Rassy and I are going to have to take this one. We need speed this time round, and the two of us are the fastest here. You and Shaela need to guard the ship and watch for anyone who tries to sneak in here."

She turned to face him, and Rassen nodded instantly upon seeing the expression Kasumi wore. They didn't have time to argue. For all they knew the first few mines were already down. If they didn't go now… well, it might be too late to do anything if they wasted any more time.

"Kasumi has a point, Shepard," he seconded quickly. "And we have to make a decision now. I know this is not an ideal course of action, but I too believe we should be the ones to go."

Rassen watched as the other man's expression shifted from worry to reluctant acceptance before he nodded once. Dipping his own head in reply, Rassen suddenly felt himself being turned around by a hand on his forearm, Shaela pushing a small device into his hand as she looked up at him.

"I don't like this, Rassen," the quarian murmured. "But you're right about one of the two of us needing to stay here." She pointed to what she had just handed him before continuing. "I should have thought to give you a kinetic barrier earlier, but hopefully this will still help now. I'm not sure if it will do much against a blaster bolt, but it will stop mass accelerator fire if you don't get hit too many times in one go."

Smiling at her in thanks, Rassen curled his fingers shut around the device before pulling the quarian closer, gently embracing her and resting his chin on the top of her helmet as she pressed her mask into his shoulder. "We will not be too long, Shaela," he said as confidently as he could.

"Good," Shaela replied, pulling away for a moment before turning to Kasumi. "Make sure he comes back."

The thief shrugged. "I'll watch his back if he watches mine."

* * *

Even for someone as used to sneaking around as she was, it was still undeniably eerie.

As she continued to make her way down the gently sloping ground, the green of the rock beneath her feet the only colour she could make out apart from the white of the smoke around her—it was more like fog really—Kasumi found herself unable to keep from shivering. It was still outrageously hot, even more so than it was inside the cave, but the sunlight that normally would have been beating down on her from above was barely visible even when she looked up, so thick was the gas around her. The only indication the sun was indeed still out was the fact that the smoke directly above her was a slightly brighter shade of white than that which pooled around her feet. No, the temperature wasn't responsible for her shuddering. It was the fact the whole situation felt completely unnatural. The fact that she couldn't see more than a few metres in front of her.

Rassen was walking next to her on the right, and he seemed as on edge as she was despite not needing to rely on his eyes as much as she did. As they carefully weaved their way through the mines using their omni-tools and descended towards where they knew their enemies lay, she noticed him beginning to frown. After they had progressed a few metres further he suddenly gestured for her to stop, lowering himself into a crouch as he pointed at a position somewhere ahead of them, though how far away it was she had no idea. Given how far they'd come already, it had to be almost at the very bottom of the slope, which made sense. The Mandalorians and batarians had to start there and work their way upwards.

Following his lead, she likewise dropped into a crouch, instinct telling her to reduce the size of the target she represented. Not that it would do her much good if they were currently being watched through thermal imaging scopes, however.

"Over there," Rassen whispered, eyes trained on where he was still pointing as though his gaze could penetrate the artificial fog that surrounded them. "Four of them, I think. All batarians."

She nodded in reply as he glanced at her, her eyes dropping to her Locust as she quickly switched from standard to disrupter rounds. She only had a limited supply of the specialised ammunition, but they needed to make this quick. Disrupter rounds would tear through the batarians' kinetic barriers like they weren't there, making them perfect for the current situation. She also had an armour piercing ammunition block on her for any Mandalorians they encountered. It never hurt to be prepared.

"We will not see them until the very last moment," Rassen continued in the same barely audible voice. "Are you ready?"

"That's a stupid question and you know it, Ras," she whispered back.

Forcing herself to suppress the laugh that attempted to escape as her companion's jaw tightened at the nickname, Kasumi began inching towards the group of batarians she still couldn't see, Rassen doing likewise a moment later. After perhaps fifteen seconds, though, the vague silhouette of a batarian who was crouching like they were came into view. A second in the same position appeared next to the first a moment later, and then two more loomed out of the smoke just beyond the first couple. These ones were standing at full height, however, sweeping their assault rifles around as they looked for any sign of trouble. Kasumi couldn't help smirking. They were about to get it.

Not daring to so much as breathe as she did so, the thief raised her Locust to her shoulder, a glowing blue icon on the side of the weapon signalling that the disrupter ammunition was ready. Glancing over at Rassen, who gave her a nod, Kasumi looked back at the group of batarians just as one of the sentries turned to face them, his silhouette visibly freezing as he did so.

 _Now!_

She slammed down on the trigger, sending a quick burst at his chest, her Locust shrieking as its fire cut the batarian down instantly. She heard Rassen's lightsaber ignite a split-second later, the glowing blue weapon sailing past her as the Jedi Knight threw it and took down the other sentry almost as quickly. The lightsaber then changed direction in mid-air with astonishing speed, catching one of the batarians who had been crouching from the side just as Kasumi switched targets and took out the final one with a few quick shots to the head. It was all over in just a few seconds.

As faint cries of alarm sounded in the distance, she rose to her full height and sprinted forwards, dropping to her knees just before the corpses and activating her omni-tool. Scanning the ground between the bodies, Kasumi gave Rassen a nod as he dropped down next to her.

"This one's still okay," she panted, feeling even hotter than before on account of the brief moment of combat. "It looks like they were just about to begin trying to disable it, but they didn't manage to even make a start before we got them. Damn, Shep really set a short detection range on these."

Rassen nodded before closing his eyes for a moment. "I can sense another group is nearby," he muttered, opening them before pointing slightly further down the slope and to the right of where they were. "We should get moving."

Jumping back to her feet and checking to make sure her current heat sink was still mostly empty, Kasumi fell into step next to the Jedi as they began heading in the direction he had indicated. They had barely gone more than a few metres before Rassen waved for her to stop, closing his eyes again as he murmured an update.

"They are changing position. Only batarians again, I think. Five this time. They must have just neutralised one of the mines and are moving on to the next one."

"Then we better hurry," she replied, Rassen nodding in agreement as they picked up the pace so they were almost running, the two of them tearing through the smoke as quietly as they could. Kasumi had to admit she was impressed. Rassen was quieter than she had expected he would be. He wasn't a patch on her, of course; her own footsteps weren't even audible to her, let alone anyone nearby. Still, the Jedi's footfalls were nearly as silent, and while she could still hear the shouts from various Mandalorians and batarians as before, none were close enough for her to be worried as Rassen guided her to their next target.

After a minute or so they stopped, both of them by now even more drenched in sweat than they already had been when they had set off. Kasumi was beginning to feel a little faint, but as she looked at the man next to her she had to admit he looked a lot worse than she was willing to bet she did. They had both dropped down low upon halting as they had before, but Rassen was rocking back and forth slightly, his eyes almost shut as he visibly struggled to remain focused. Internally she felt a small stab of guilt at thinking her own situation was bad. She had at least managed to spend some time out of the heat before they had left the cave.

"Just over… over there," Rassen managed, voice noticeably weak as he nodded to a point somewhere ahead of them. "We can sneak up as we did before and get the drop on them if we move in now. Given they have not fired at us yet, we can assume they are not looking out way, like the other group was not. It would seem the Force is with us."

"Are you sure you're up to it?" Kasumi asked, shifting closer in order to place a hand on her companion's shoulder so she could steady him.

"I have to be. We need as much time as we… as we can get, Kasumi. The wait before the smoke… Balak and Mandalore are counting on us being too exhausted by the heat to stop them from disabling the mines. We cannot allow them to… to win."

"Fine," she whispered, "but after this we're going back so you can get some rest inside the ship. Shaela can come back with me and we can carry on." Sensing Rassen was about to protest, she pressed on before he could. "You can help Shepard by sensing anyone who approaches the cave from inside the ship. Shaela can look after herself, Rassen. You know that."

"I know," he replied, rocking dangerously before she managed to steady him again, cursing the fact neither of them had thought to bring water. "I just… just…"

"Love her," Kasumi finished, giving him an understanding smile as he forced his eyes back open. "I get it, big guy. I feel the same way about Shep. Now, let's…" she trailed off as Rassen gave her a tired smirk.

"I knew all along, you know."

"You… What do you mean all along?"

The smirk widened. "Ever since you insisted we rescue him as soon as we found out he was being held prisoner I suspected. It was just as obvious with him when we… got him out, though. Then, of course, there was you wanting to talk to Shaela privately about something… and you deciding to wait for Shepard alone when he left the ship. She has not told me what you discussed, but it seemed rather obvious what it was. When you kissed a few hours ago… well, it was not much of a surprise."

"I… You… We have a job to do."

"Indeed." Rassen turned to face the direction they had been heading in and started to inch forwards, causing her to follow suit. It seemed quieter than before as they advanced. The alarmed cries from before had stopped. Kasumi's eyes widened at that realisation.

 _Oh no._

"Rassen," she whispered, causing the Jedi to glance back at her. "Something's wrong."

She watched him as he opened his mouth to ask what it was, only to close it as he frowned and shut his eyes for a split-second. "The squad is withdrawing," he muttered as he looked back at her. "It is difficult to tell, but I think every group is pulling back. Why would they do that when they have made so little progress?"

"We need to head back to the ship," she hissed, looking over her shoulder as though an attacker would loom out of the artificial fog behind her at any moment. "If they're trying to leave us alone in here… We need to get out as fast as possible."

Nodding reluctantly, Rassen rose to his full height as she did the same. Kasumi understood his hesitation. They had a job to do, and they had barely managed to do anything. They probably hadn't bought themselves anything more than a few minutes at best. For a moment she wavered. Perhaps she was overreacting. While her gut had normally been right in the past, it wasn't always—

The sound of a blaster firing came from somewhere behind her, causing Kasumi to whip round just in time to see a scarlet bolt fly wide to the right of her and Rassen before impacting against the slope, the projectile blasting a small fragment of stone free and leaving a scorch mark on the green rock. Staring in shock for a moment, she felt her heart drop into her stomach as a second blaster blot struck a point to their left. Then a mass accelerator rifle joined in, its shot sounding as though it impacted somewhere above them, though she couldn't see where exactly. None of them were even close to hitting either her or Rassen, but as the handful of weapons firing at them suddenly increased into dozens and then hundreds, she began to understand what was happening.

Knowing they were somewhere inside the smokescreen, the entire army was beginning to blindly fire at the slope. Most of them clearly didn't have thermal imaging scopes, but with so many guns at their disposal, they wouldn't need them.

"Kasumi, move!" Rassen shouted, breaking into a sprint a moment before she did, the two of them throwing any attempt at stealth to the wind as the ground exploded all around them, hundreds of batarians and Mandalorians firing into the smoke that was now their only chance of survival.

Panting as she and Rassen raced towards the top of the slope as fast as they could, her kinetic barrier flaring as it protected her from a couple of lucky hits, Kasumi let out a scream as a warning tone filled her ears, the sound issuing from her omni-tool as she realised they had forgotten about the mines. An explosion over to her right seemed to shake the entire planet and she was suddenly weightless.

Then she hit the ground and everything went black.

* * *

As consciousness returned to her, Kasumi moaned weakly, her head feeling as though it was splitting open. Her ears rang so loudly she didn't notice at first that someone was shaking her, it only sinking in when she looked up to see Rassen, his face tight with pain and his left side bloody as he shouted her name. His voice was drowned out by the constant ringing, but she could still read his lips. Nodding slowly, she grunted as she felt herself being pulled to her feet, leaning on the Jedi for support as he began to half drag and half carry her along, shards of green rock still exploding free of the ground around them as blaster and mass accelerator fire hissed through the air.

She didn't know how long they kept moving for, only that eventually she was able to straighten up and run unassisted and that somehow neither of them got hit as Rassen led her back to the cave. She didn't think they'd make it until it suddenly loomed out of the smoke without warning along with a horrified Shaela and Shepard, whose expressions turned to relief as she and the Jedi reached them.

Kasumi collapsed to the floor of the cave as soon as she was inside it, chest heaving as she inhaled as much of the scorching air as she could, barely hearing Rassen as he crashed to the ground on her left. Looking over at him, she saw the Jedi Knight's eyes were shut, his body unable to take any more as he lay on his front next to her.

A pool of red began to slowly grow around him.

As Shaela rushed over to Rassen's side with a gasp, Kasumi looked up at Shepard as he tried to help her into a sitting position, drawing a cough from her lips, which had cracked from the heat at some point.

"We… we got one of their groups," she managed. "But we couldn't… we couldn't…

And then she passed out again.


	29. Chapter 29

**A/N: It's that time again. This chapter also proved difficult to finish. For some reason it's taking me ages to check just a single page for errors when normally I could do a whole chapter's worth in one go. I don't know if it's writer's block or not, but the next update might take a little while.**

 **Responses to reviews are as follows:**

 **AnarionRising27: Only one way to find out. Glad you liked it!**

 **Chapter 29: Hope**

As he slowly opened his eyes and looked over to the right, Rassen was greeted by a confused mess of different colours. Shades of blue dominated, many of which seemed familiar from somewhere, not that he could place them at the moment. Glancing up revealed there was a bright light of some kind above him, which caused the Jedi Knight to wince and turn his gaze back to where it had been before, letting out a groan of protest as he did so.

The groan turned into a hiss as Rassen suddenly became aware of a stabbing pain in his side, the sensation very uncomfortable, though fortunately not agonising. Completely disorientated on account of not being able to see clearly, he decided to lie still until the pain faded, mind sluggish as he tried to remember what had happened to put him in his current position.

Frowning as the mass of blue he was looking at moved in response to the noise he was making, Rassen began to reach out to the Force as it shifted closer, only to stop as it took one of his hands in its own. The other being's hand only had three digits, and even in his current state he knew what that meant.

"Shaela," he managed, tongue heavy in his mouth as he struggled to speak. "What…" He trailed off as the quarian's hand squeezed his own tightly before he felt her cup the side of his face with her free one. Rassen closed his eyes at her touch as Shaela spoke, her voice soft.

"You've lost a lot of blood, Rassen," the quarian murmured. "A shard of rock hit you just below your ribs, but it got stuck and managed to prevent you from bleeding out long enough for me to apply some medi-gel before your condition could become critical. You're going to be all right, but you need to rest. We can't do anything about the blood. Your body needs time to replace it."

Memories returned to him as Shaela explained what had happened. Running back to the ship with Kasumi, enemy fire peppering the ground around them. The Force warning him of danger just in time as he heard a scream from behind him so he could try and shield himself and Kasumi from the exploding mine that would otherwise have killed them. Landing on the ground after being airborne for a few seconds, the air leaving his lungs instantly as his back smashed against the unyielding rock. An agonising pain like a sharp knife was stabbing him over and over again in the side as he got up and managed to rouse Kasumi. The two of them somehow managing to make it back to the cave, the ground suddenly rushing up to meet him before… nothing.

He coughed, suddenly realising how dry his throat was, only for Shaela to press a canteen of water to his lips. Drinking greedily and quickly emptying it, Rassen took a gasping breath as the container was pulled away. "What have I missed?" he asked, looking at the quarian to see his vision had improved to the point that she now looked more like the Shaela he remembered instead of a mixture of shades of blue all clumped together. He could at least make out the silver of her eyes now, as well as the fact she was sitting next to him. "Are they still advancing?"

"I… They are," Shaela replied, and he could hear the reluctance in her voice at giving him bad news when he no doubt looked as terrible as he felt. "I've been keeping Shepard updated while you and Kasumi have been unconscious. They're close, Rassen. Shepard is locking down the loading ramp at the moment like Kasumi suggested. That should buy us a little more time."

Nodding slowly, Rassen allowed his eyes to wander away from the quarian and over his surroundings. Now that he could see a little better than he had been able to upon first awakening, he could make out the beds that surrounded the one he himself was presumably lying on. They were in the bunkroom. It made sense. "So where is Kasumi?" he asked, frowning as he found himself unable to locate the thief. "How is she?"

"Over here, big guy," came a familiar albeit drowsy voice, causing Rassen to lean up slightly so he could look around Shaela, a strong feeling of relief flooding through his body at the sight of Kasumi occupying the bed to his right. The way she was blearily looking about told him she had woken up while he and Shaela had been talking.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking. All systems go."

"You passed out almost as quickly as he did, Kasumi," Shaela replied before Rassen could, the quarian rising from the chair she had been occupying and moving over to the thief's side. "I need to run some tests to make sure you're actually okay and there will be no long term effects from what happened out there."

"Not sure we have time for that," Kasumi shrugged, sitting up without difficulty and stretching her arms above her head, something that caused Rassen to wince as a flash of pain ran through his side just watching her. "How long will this take?"

He had to make a conscious effort to hide his smile as Shaela let out a sigh of annoyance. "Only a few minutes," she replied. "Can you wait that long?"

"I guess," Kasumi mused, clearly pretending to think as she spoke. "You said Shep's by the ramp?"

"Yes," the quarian nodded. "Once I'm done you can help him lock it down. We're going to have to try and hold the ship until help arrives, though I don't know how long we can realistically do that for."

Kasumi gave a slow nod of her own in response. "Damn it. We're starting to run out of options, then. Once they get into the ship, we're going to have to fight them while we retreat from one room to the next. As much as I hate to say it, if help hasn't arrived yet…" The thief suddenly trailed off, eyes dropping to her forearm as a pinging noise issued from her omni-tool.

Rassen stared down at his own in surprise when it made the same sound a split-second later, mind racing as he tried to work out what it could mean. They had connected their omni-tools to the ship's 'VI' as the others had referred to it, in order to be notified when Mandalore and Balak's ships entered the planet's atmosphere. He and Shaela had missed the alert when the vessels had arrived on account of their being otherwise occupied. Why was the device on his wrist alerting him now, though? Did their enemies have even more troops coming? It was either that, or…

His head snapped up at the exact same moment as the room's other two occupants reached the same conclusion, the three of them staring at each other in disbelief, none of them able to speak. It didn't seem possible after everything that had transpired during the short time they had been forced to rely on themselves and no one else, but Rassen couldn't think of a third possibility.

Help had arrived.

Kasumi began punching commands into her now-active omni-tool as he watched, the orange haptic interface above her wrist seeming to glow with more energy than usual as she worked, though that might have been his imagination. Her face was bathed in light from the device, allowing him to see the look of concentration she wore despite her hood, as well as the hint of disbelief in her eyes, which only grew as she continued to stare at the screen before her. After a minute or so she looked up at him, then over at Shaela, and then back at him.

"I… Alliance Kodiaks are entering the atmosphere. I'm counting twenty of them at the moment, but more keep coming," Kasumi whispered in awe. "Looks like the cavalry's here."

Rassen grunted as he began to sit up, prompting a concerned gasp from Shaela as she moved to his side and tried to gently push him back down. As he attempted to brush her hands away, the quarian let out a resigned sigh before moving behind him and helping him lean up into a sitting position, causing Rassen to shoot a grateful look in her direction. As she squeezed his shoulder before returning to the same chair she had used before, he turned his attention back to Kasumi, who he noticed was smirking as she watched the two of them.

"Kodiaks?" he asked curiously.

"Alliance shuttles, Ras," the thief replied excitedly. "Never thought I'd be this happy to have an army heading towards me, but there's a first time for everything. They must have checked out Horizon already and then noticed all the activity here on Venture." She glanced back at her omni-tool before continuing in an even more animated way than before. "We should be able to see them from the cockpit in a few minutes, actually."

Finding the thief's enthusiasm infectious, Rassen allowed himself a small smile. It had been a close run thing, but with the Mandalorians and batarians still working their way through the mines, it was beginning to look like they had just about made it. Swinging his legs off the bed, ignoring the pain in his side and noticing with some surprise that he was still wearing his armour and cloak as he did so, he attempted to get up, only to pause as a very familiar enviro-suit appeared in front of him.

"Rassen," Shaela said firmly, "you're too weak to walk properly. Kasumi can go and look on her own." The last part was aimed at the room's other occupant, who jumped slightly at the quarian's tone.

"Right, yes," the thief nodded quickly. "It probably won't be that much of a view anyway, Ras. I'll go and let Shep know what's happening and then check it out." She turned to Shaela before giving the quarian a grin. "We probably didn't need to go through those tests anyway."

Rassen again found himself having to suppress a smile as Kasumi casually swung her legs off the bed before jumping to her feet and leaving the room as Shaela tried to protest, the quarian's mouthpiece lighting up blue for a moment before fading without her managing to say anything. Shaking her head, Shaela turned back to face him, the expression he could tell she wore beneath her mask causing him to raise an eyebrow.

"I take it your patients on Rannoch are normally more compliant than that?"

"Normally yes," the quarian muttered, sitting down next to him on the bed. There was a moment of silence before she spoke again. "It doesn't feel real to me, Rassen. We've done it. The Alliance is here and this is all nearly over."

"I know the feeling," he said gently, placing an arm around her shoulders and pulling Shaela against him, causing her eyes to widen before she realised she was leaning against his good side rather than his bad one and relented, closing her eyes as she relaxed against him. A comfortable silence fell between them as they sat there, content to just enjoy the brief moment of peace they had been granted.

* * *

As she left Shaela and Rassen behind, practically sprinting through the ship despite still feeling a little groggy, Kasumi couldn't help grinning. Almost bursting with excitement, she reached her destination in no time flat, nearly skidding to a stop she was running so fast as she reached the small room that contained the ship's ramp. Shepard, who had been entering a command into the haptic interface next to the ramp via his omni-tool with his back to her, twisted round, rifle at the ready, only to lower it immediately when he saw it was her.

Ignoring the apology he tried to give her, Kasumi waved both hands at him excitedly until he stopped talking and stared at her in confusion. "Shep," she began, it taking considerable effort to speak at something close to normal speed, "did your omni-tool go off a few minutes ago?"

Shepard shook his head. "I don't think so," he replied slowly, indicating the closed ramp behind him with a thumb. "But I've been using it to lock down this, which I've only just managed to do, since I'm not as familiar with batarian security systems as I would like to be. I might have been too distracted to hear any notifications. Why, did I miss something?"

Kasumi closed the gap between them, wrapping her arms around his mid-section and delighting at how his breathing noticeably altered. "Alliance ships are on their way," she smirked. "They're already inside the atmosphere."

"You mean—"

"Yep," she replied, her smirk turning into a full-blown smile now. "We just need to hang tight for a little bit longer, Shep." She turned slightly so she could look at the interface, only to frown at the text being displayed by the small orange screen. "I thought you said you'd locked it," she muttered slowly, an unpleasant feeling stirring in the pit of her stomach.

"What?" Shepard replied, carefully prying her arms away before turning around to look at the interface himself. "I definitely locked it. I was just about to add a few layers of encryption to prevent access from the outside."

Kasumi opened her mouth to ask how it was possible for the ramp to have unlocked itself, only to stare in horror as it suddenly began lowering. "It's them!" she shouted, pushing past Shepard and connecting her omni-tool to the interface even as a few rays of Venture's harsh sunlight reached her through the crack that had appeared above their heads. "They're on the other side!"

"What?" Shepard yelled, levelling his sniper rifle at the gap as it grew rapidly. "How did they get past the last few mines without us knowing?"

 _Because Rassen and Shaela aren't paying attention at the moment,_ she wanted to say, her eyes still locked on the interface as it flashed red, telling her that her command had been rejected. A blaster bolt sailed through the gap a split-second later, missing Shepard by inches before slamming into the wall behind them, the metal sizzling where it struck and a black scorch mark appearing. Shepard responded instantly, his rifle letting out a boom, the sound of a mass accelerator round impacting against flesh telling her that their enemies were indeed right outside. She couldn't currently see them on account of being much shorter than the man next to her, but that wouldn't be the case for much longer if she couldn't do something about the ramp.

"We need to get Rassen and Shaela down here!" she shouted, glancing over at Shepard as the command she had been trying to enter was finally accepted, the interface flashing green for a moment. He nodded without looking away from the gap, firing again a second later, the sound of another target dropping reaching her ears. Turning her gaze to her wrist, Kasumi tried to connect to Shaela's omni-tool, only to swear as the interface next to the ramp flashed red and the wall of metal began lowering again.

Shepard's kinetic barrier fizzled as it protected him from a burst of assault rifle fire. Her own flared a moment later, the ramp now low enough that even though she was hunched over as she worked, those outside could see her just as easily as they could the man next to her. Grabbing her Locust from her side, Kasumi unfolded the weapon before straightening up and opening fire.

She dropped down into a crouch after unleashing a quick burst, but could tell she'd hit something. Mentally counting to three, she rose back up and fired again, this time seeing the man she hit, a batarian ten metres or so away from the ship slumping to the ground. There were plenty to replace him, though.

She almost got hit by a blaster bolt as she ducked back down again, but Kasumi still swallowed at the sight of the countless dozens of batarians and Mandalorians outside the ship. She had managed to catch a glimpse of even more coming up the slope, clearly the last part of the combined force to get past the mines. The entire army was bearing down on her and Shepard, and at any moment they would have to pull back and try to seal a door behind them. The ramp was now so low down she was having difficulty crouching behind it successfully. Shepard was having even more trouble using the slab of metal as cover than she was on account of his greater height.

 _Damn it. Where the hell are Rassen and Shaela?_

She didn't see the object as it sailed in an arc over the ramp and into the ship. She didn't hear the clunk it made either. She did, however, hear Shepard's cry of shock, her gaze instinctively moving to him before dropping to the flashbang grenade that had landed between them just as it detonated, causing the world to turn white.

* * *

As he sat there with one arm around the woman he loved, Rassen wondered if this was what his future would consist of. Moments of peace with Shaela where they didn't do much except enjoy the other's presence. Obviously they would both do other things as well, such as help the sick and wounded like she had suggested, but when they were not doing that, what would he do with his time?

Training was the obvious answer. He had agreed to her request that there be no more fighting after the current situation was resolved, but it would be foolish not to remain in form. As much as he hated to admit it, the galaxy… _both_ galaxies were places where plans could often change and unpleasant outcomes arise without warning.

That being said, he hoped there would still be plenty of time for moments such as this one.

Despite having been unconscious for several hours, his eyelids were beginning to feel heavy. A quick glance over at Shaela and how her own eyes were slowly closing instantly told him that she too was exhausted. When had she last slept? Presumably she hadn't while he had been out, given she had been sitting next to him when he had awoken. Tightening his arm around her shoulders slightly, Rassen smiled gently at the quarian as she made a noise of contentment before snuggling closer against his side. Despite where they were, the moment could only be described as perfect.

There was the unmistakable sound of a blaster firing.

The two of them broke apart as Shepard's sniper rifle answered a split-second later, the weapon's deep boom unmistakable. Kasumi's submachine gun soon joined it as they sat there in shock, both firearms loud enough that they had to be shooting from inside the ship.

Shaela recovered first and lurched to her feet just before he did. Rassen let out a quiet gasp as the pain in his side flared as he got up, the Jedi Knight leaning against a nearby wall with his shoulder as the room seemed to spin around him. He winced as the noise he made caused the woman next to him to turn and face him, her lightsaber already in her hand as she did so.

"You need to stay here," Shaela protested, her silver eyes wide. "Whatever's happening—"

"We both know what it is," Rassen interrupted, pushing off from the wall and managing to take a couple of unsteady steps towards the door that connected the bunkroom to the rest of the ship. It seemed much further away from the beds than he remembered it being, which couldn't be a good sign. As Shaela stepped in front of him and blocked his way, Rassen looked directly into the two concerned silver pools that stared back at him.

"I am going with you, injury or no injury."

"Rassen," the sounds of blasters and mass accelerator weapons firing interrupted Shaela for a second before she continued, her voice pleading. "You can barely walk. Stay here."

"I cannot do that," he replied, staggering over to the quarian so they stood perhaps only an inch apart. "If you were the injured one, would you stay behind?"

"That's not—"

"The same? Of course it is," Rassen interrupted, trying to ignore how the floor spinning beneath him was beginning to make him feel sick. "We are wasting time, Shaela. We need to go and help them."

He almost relented as the pleading look in the quarian's eyes somehow managed to grow even stronger, the silver orbs begging him to stay where he was. Swallowing with much more difficulty than normal, Rassen held firm, neither of them blinking as they stared into each other's eyes. After what felt like an age as the sounds of fighting continued but in reality could only have been a few seconds, Shaela finally nodded once before turning in the direction of the door and sprinting towards it. Rassen stared at her back for a second before following, drawing his lightsaber from his side as he did so.

The sounds of fighting continued as he raced after the quarian as fast as he could through the ship's cramped confines, just about managing to keep up with Shaela despite the stabbing pain in his side getting stronger with seemingly every step he took. The shooting grew louder and louder as they ran through room after room, becoming almost deafening before abruptly falling silent just as quickly as it had started.

Rassen staggered to a halt, Shaela likewise stopping just ahead. The quarian turned around to face him, the same fear in her eyes that he knew was present in his own. Were Kasumi and Shepard… No. No, that wasn't possible. Shaking his head before meeting Shaela's gaze again, Rassen broke back into a run as best he could, passing the quarian before she began to follow him.

Panting heavily as they made it through the last few rooms, Rassen stumbled around the final corner before the loading ramp, only to freeze at the sight of a blaster pointing directly at the centre of his chest. As he slowly looked up, his eyes met the familiar T-shaped visor of a Mandalorian. Several others, as well as at least ten batarians, stood just behind the one aiming at him, their own weapons trained on Shepard and Kasumi, both of whom were on their knees with their hands behind their heads. They were both staring at the ground, but from this angle Rassen could see they were blinking rapidly, as though there was something wrong with their eyes.

Shaela burst into the room a second after he did, causing two of the batarians to shift their aim to her, the quarian stopping just as abruptly as he had. For a moment there was silence. Then the sound of heavy boots making their way up the loading ramp reached Rassen's ears. Although her armour was indistinguishable from that of the Mandalorians already in front of him, he still recognised Mandalore as she surveyed the four of them being held at gunpoint, her gaze moving over Shepard and Kasumi first before turning to himself and Shaela.

"Congratulations," she said coldly, but with a note of grudging respect to her voice. "I knew you wouldn't simply wait for us to find you before begging for mercy, but I didn't expect you to dig in and fight quite as tenaciously as you have. I'm afraid the hunt is over now, though. Lay down your weapons."

Rassen could feel Shaela looking at him. He wanted to tell her to go back, to get herself out of the small room while she still could while he bought her some time. The words stuck in his mouth. She wouldn't be able to ignite her lightsaber in time to defend herself at this distance, but if she attempted to run she probably wouldn't even manage to turn around before being fired on. And she wouldn't leave him anyway. Even if he begged and pleaded with her to try and seal herself in one of the ship's rooms, to buy herself a few precious minutes, she still wouldn't do it.

Rassen could feel Mandalore's impatience growing as he hesitated. "Drop your weapons," she repeated slowly. "In case you haven't noticed, I have two of your merry band at gunpoint. I will have one of them shot if you don't lay down your arms now."

The Mandalorians and batarians around Shepard and Kasumi shifted slightly, but their weapons never so much as wavered. From his position on his knees, Shepard slowly looked up at Rassen, still blinking as he shook his head almost imperceptibly. The tension in the air somehow seemed to grow even greater as nobody moved, so thick now it could be cut with a knife.

Then Rassen made his decision.

Turning his gaze back to Mandalore, he slowly allowed his grip on his lightsaber to slacken, the metal cylinder falling from his hand to clang against the floor. Shaela's own lightsaber as well as her pistol joined it a second later.

Rassen could almost see the smirk Mandalore wore beneath her helmet. "Good choice," she sneered, turning to her subordinates before gesturing to him and Shaela. "Take them outside, and bring the commander and the other one as well."

Wincing as two Mandalorians seized him by his arms, Rassen tried to think of a plan as he was frogmarched out of the ship and into the cave before being forced to his knees, grunting as he landed heavily on the rocky ground. He heard Shaela gasp in pain as she was forced down next to him. He looked over at her to see Kasumi being made to kneel on the quarian's other side, while Shepard was placed next to the thief, the four of them forming a line with their bodies so close together they were almost touching. Looking away from Shaela and at his surroundings as he continued to think desperately, Rassen saw that what had to be all of the Mandalorians and batarians were gathered in the cave. As if receiving some unspoken command, they closed in, surrounding their group of four on all sides.

The Alliance shuttles had to be close now. What was Mandalore playing at? Unless the leader of the task force was completely incompetent, they would be constantly monitoring for any vessels leaving the planet. Her desire to hunt them before Shepard had blasted a sizable number of Mandalorians and batarians to smithereens, coupled with the rage she no doubt felt about what the commander had done, had been her undoing. She was trapped on Venture. It was over for her and her followers.

So why didn't he get the impression she was worried?

A low hum suddenly filled the cave, snapping him out of his thoughts as Mandalore began to pace up and down in front of the four of them, a vibrosword in one hand. It was of an old—some might say ancient—design, the blade curving backwards at the end into a vicious point. Aside from that rather striking feature, the weapon was simple and unadorned, there being nothing to mark it out as special in any way.

Vibroswords and vibroblades in general were something Rassen remembered well from his galaxy. They were one of the few kinds of weapons that could stand up to a lightsaber without being cut in half, and they were in their own way just as deadly. The humming he could hear was the blade of the weapon vibrating, meaning even a slight cut inflicted with it could easily becoming a gaping wound as it tore through flesh like paper.

Mandalore abruptly stopped pacing before looking down at the four of them, a hint of manic excitement to her voice as she spoke. "We have a few minutes before your allies arrive. I think that gives us time to attend to a few matters."


	30. Chapter 30

**A/N: Another chapter is ready, so here you go. Apologies about how long it took, but writing has proven to be extremely difficult recently. This really did take me all of the time since the last update.**

 **Responses to reviews are as follows:**

 **AnarionRising27: Thanks! Well, there's only one way to find out.**

 **Rob Sears: I think that stems from me deciding to take things slowly and wanting to make a smaller scale story with the first one. From there it made sense to expand the number of elements that are introduced, both in terms of characters but also aspects of the lore. I'm glad you like the intertwining of elements and will try to continue to grow that over time.**

 **Thanks for reviewing, I really appreciate it!**

 **seabo76: Kasumi is probably the most underrated character in the series. She's great, but the fact that like Zaeed she doesn't have proper dialogue scenes outside her loyalty mission and recruitment and also is DLC means she gets overlooked a lot. I'd decided even before I finished the first False Masks that Shepard would appear in the sequel, but I at first wasn't sure who else would appear. In the end I decided on her, of course.**

 **Thank you for all of your support so far. It really does mean everything (I know literally everyone on the site says that, but it's true) and I'll be sure to check out your story as soon as I can.**

 **Chapter 30: Extinguished**

As he stared down at the world below him, he had to admit he had seen worse in his time. He had seen better as well, but that wasn't exactly surprising considering how much of the galaxy he had been around during his decades of service. Venture was hardly appealing with its mottled green surface and scorching temperatures, but at least it was habitable to some extent. That was a lot more than could be said for many other planets in the galaxy... both those that had always been that way and those that had been rendered uninhabitable by the Reapers.

Clasping his hands behind his back, Admiral Steven Hackett continued to allow his eyes to wander over the different shades of green that made up the world fate had seen fit to draw him to, as if he could actually see the commander despite the many thousands of miles between them. When he had received word about Shepard being held captive on Aratoht, well, what little was left of Aratoht, he had scarcely believed it. The commander had proved he was completely unstoppable so many times that Hackett knew he shouldn't doubt that Shepard had somehow survived activating the Crucible, but he was very much a practical man at the end of the day. People in his position had to be.

It wasn't that he needed irrefutable evidence that Shepard was alive necessarily. Hackett was careful about whom he trusted, and as a result the group of people he did trust was very small indeed. However, that meant that the word of one of those individuals carried considerable weight, which coupled with the fact Shepard seemed able to defy death whenever it came calling, meant that once the message Matriarch Wessa had forwarded to him had been backed up by one Liara T'soni, he had known the tip was good. Shepard was still alive.

And he was on the planet that Hackett was staring at even now.

His taskforce had first gone to Aratoht, only to find it abandoned. The ships that had clearly been there were gone, as were any weapons. Every single terminal had been wiped as well. The quick search he had ordered had turned up nothing else aside from the fact an extremely powerful infantry weapon had taken a sizable chunk out of one of the hangers. With so little to go on, a more thorough examination of the facility had been the obvious next step.

Hackett had left a sizable detachment behind to do just that as well as hold the base before taking the rest of his vessels and heading for Horizon. The message he had received from Matriarch Wessa had made it clear that the colony had been wiped out, but there was still the possibility that some of the colonists could have successfully hidden from those responsible, and that they were even now in desperate need of food and medical supplies.

Upon arriving in the Iera system, though, every ship in the taskforce had picked up on the multitude of signals radiating from Venture. Closer inspection from just outside the world's atmosphere had revealed that a large number of batarian ships were stationed near the end of one of the planet's valleys, which ended with a large cave. Given that all of the ships were facing the same way, the conclusion had been obvious. Shepard was in that cave, and judging by the fact Hackett's forces hadn't picked up on anyone leaving those ships, their owners were likely already inside as well. That meant there was no time to waste.

Hundreds of marines aboard dozens of Kodiaks were already heading towards the cave. With the batarian ships all currently within the valley itself, the Alliance shuttles would have to land on top of the valley walls, which the marines would then have to descend in order to advance towards the cave. They couldn't land right outside it, as the only available ground between the batarian vessels and their target was at too harsh an angle to be suitable for the Kodiaks.

However, the obvious alternative of landing behind the enemy ships in the valley itself and attempting to trap them would mean that his men would need to make their way past all of the vessels on foot, which given how narrow the valley was and how many marines there were would take too long. Ultimately, landing on top of the valley's walls was the only real option if they wanted to reach the commander in time.

The Kodiaks were almost at their target. If Shepard could hold out for just a little longer—

"Sir?"

Hackett turned around as the voice interrupted his thoughts, his hands still folded behind his back as the man responsible hastily but professionally saluted. "Yes, Lieutenant?" he asked, keeping his voice calm with ease thanks to decades of practise. "Do you have something to report?"

The communications officer nodded before standing at ease as Hackett waved a hand. Protocol had its place, but not when speed was paramount, which it very much was given the current situation. "Most of the Kodiaks are still advancing in formation and at standard approach velocity, sir," the dark-haired man said quickly. "But one of them has broken away from the rest and is heading flat out for the commander's position."

"Let me guess," Hackett replied slowly, unclasping his hands so he could cross his arms. "It's the shuttle our volunteer is on, isn't it?"

"Yes, sir."

"And how exactly did he manage to convince the rest of its occupants to disobey my orders?"

"He, ah… he said that because he's—"

"Of course he did," Hackett muttered, feeling a stab of frustration. With hindsight it now seemed obvious this was going to happen, but then hindsight was a wonderful thing. "Contact the shuttle. Tell him that I don't care what he…" the admiral trailed off as a thought suddenly occurred to him.

"Sir?" the lieutenant asked, shifting in place as he waited for his superior to continue.

Returning his attention to the other man, Hackett gave him a nod before speaking. "Tell him that I want him to land out of audio range of the cave behind the enemy ships and advance past them on foot along with the shuttle's marines. They will observe and report on what's happening in the cave and then attempt to draw at least some of the enemy away from the objective. Hopefully that will buy the commander enough time for the other shuttles to arrive and take advantage of their forces being divided."

"Understood, sir." The lieutenant saluted again before turning on his heel and walking back to his post. Nodding at the other man's retreating form, Hackett then turned his gaze back to the planet below.

 _You just need to hang on for a little longer, Shepard._

* * *

The silence was almost deafening.

For a moment no one broke it, the four of them staring up at Mandalore as the armoured woman's gaze moved between each of them in turn, starting with Shepard at one end of the line before finally settling on Rassen at the other and then switching back to the commander. Over and over again she repeated the process, the tension growing harder and harder for Rassen to stomach as he continued to think as fast as he could. There had to be some way for the four of them to get out of their current situation. There had to be. Whatever the answer was, though, the Jedi Knight couldn't think of it. Judging from the expressions his friends wore, they too were struggling to come up with a plan... and meeting with the same amount of success as he was.

Rassen flinched slightly as Mandalore suddenly spoke, her voice wrenching him out of his thoughts as she pointed her vibrosword in his direction.

"Bring that one to me."

In response to the order, a pair of Mandalorians stowed their weapons and began to advance towards him. Despite the stab of fear he felt as the two armoured warriors closed in, Rassen kept his expression calm, locking his gaze with Mandalore's as she tilted her head slightly, clearly amused by something. Refusing to allow her the satisfaction of seeing how that only caused his fear to grow, Rassen continued to stare back at her as the two Mandalorians stopped before him.

No, not before him.

As he looked to his right with a mounting feeling of dread, Rassen's gaze met Shaela's, the quarian's silver eyes wide with fear as she stared back at him. Her hand suddenly found his own, and he gripped it tightly. For a moment it was just the two of them, time seeming to freeze as he tried to reassure her with his gaze, tried to promise her that he wouldn't let anything happen to her.

A vicious kick caught him in the centre of his chest, shattering the moment and sending him crashing to the floor of the cave on his back. Rassen gritted his teeth and struggled not to scream as his side erupted with agony, his vision swimming as his eyes watered. Forcing himself to show as little weakness as possible, he settled for gasping for air instead as he blinked in an attempt to clear his vision, his legs folded awkwardly beneath him as he stared up at the cave's ceiling, the world spinning even faster now than it had been earlier.

Someone screamed nearby, the sound triggering something primal within him before he even consciously recognised who was responsible. Grunting with the effort it took, Rassen managed to roll onto his front before turning in the direction the noise had come from. Snarling at the sight of Shaela being dragged towards Mandalore by the two Mandalorians from before, he tried to push himself to his feet, only for his side to erupt with pain once again, causing the Jedi Knight to collapse back to the ground after only managing to rise a few inches from it.

"And to think, I once believed you would be the most dangerous one."

Ignoring how his side felt as though it was on fire as best he could, Rassen slowly looked up to see Mandalore staring back at him. "I'll admit I was actually excited when I learned a Jedi was present on Horizon," she continued. "I thought it would give me a chance to hunt and test myself against a truly formidable opponent." She glanced over at Shepard before looking back at him. "How humiliating it must be to know that a mere soldier is more deadly than you, even with the Force at your disposal."

The two Mandalorians had by now reached their leader, and they threw Shaela to the ground, drawing a pained cry from the quarian as she landed on all fours before the armoured woman. Rassen's blood ran cold as Mandalore pointed her vibrosword directly at Shaela's neck, the tip hovering an inch away from the material of the quarian's enviro-suit as the weapon continued to hum. Looking away from it and back at Mandalore's visor, Rassen could almost see the smirk she wore as she enjoyed his helplessness.

"You've lost," Shepard said suddenly, causing Rassen to look over at him in surprise as the other man gave their captor a cold stare. With the threat to Shaela, he had almost forgotten that both he and Kasumi were still present.

"You said yourself that you know the Alliance is almost here," Shepard continued. "If you surrender now, they'll treat you fairly. They'll treat all of you fairly."

The last part was aimed at the hundreds of Mandalorians and batarians around them. It was a good idea, Rassen had to admit. Look for internal division, see if there was some way of making the enemy fight one another, or even avoiding a fight altogether. As he looked between the grinning faces of the batarians and the helmets of the Mandalorians, which no doubt hid similar expressions of savage joy, though, he could tell the commander's words had fallen on deaf ears.

"Lost?" Mandalore replied, a mocking edge to her voice. "How did you reach that conclusion?"

Shepard frowned slightly in response. "It's obvious," the commander said slowly. "How many of your troops are in here with us? All of them, or at the very least almost all of them. The Alliance will have started watching for aerial activity before sending anyone down to the planet's surface, and they'll be ready to shoot you down as soon as you take off. There's no way any of you are getting out of here alive without surrendering. It's over."

Mandalore laughed once, her voice hard and cruel as she tilted her head slightly. "It's only just begun, Commander. Due to what you did on Aratoht, changes had to be made to our approach, but I am nothing if not flexible. Your reinforcements will have little choice but to do as I say while I have their greatest hero at blaster point."

"So that's it?" Shepard asked incredulously. "You're going to use the four of us as hostages? The Alliance won't roll over and do what you want just because of that."

"I believe I only mentioned you, Commander. Your friends are far more... expendable."

Rassen felt a chill run down his spine. He didn't want to die, but the very real possibility of it happening was not the cause of the fear he felt. What was far worse than the prospect of his own death, what truly terrified him, was the fact that Shaela was still on her knees before Mandalore, an activated vibrosword a matter of centimetres away from ending her life.

"Let her go," he managed, drawing the attention of everyone in the cave back to him as he tried again to get up, only for his limbs to tremble before he collapsed back to the ground, barely managing to suppress a scream as the pain in his side somehow became even worse than before. "Shepard is… is telling the truth. There has been enough death. Lay down your weapons and let that be the end of it."

Mandalore shook her head slowly before replying. "It's not over just yet, Jedi. Circumstances may have changed, but the end result is the same as it would have been had the commander not decided to pull that stunt back on Aratoht. At the end of the day, you and your friends are going to die… well, aside from _Shepard_ here."

"And how did you get Balak to sign off on that?" Shepard challenged. "The last time I checked, he didn't care about the others. I'm the one he wants to see suffer."

Rassen watched as Shepard suddenly turned his attention to the assembled Mandalorians and batarians, eyes narrowed as he searched for something. "Where is he anyway?" the commander asked finally.

Mandalore laughed again, the sound as cold as ever. "You killed him," she replied, before turning her attention back to Shaela in a way that made it clear she couldn't have cared less about her ally's demise if she had tried. "Now, where were we? Ah, I remember."

She moved her vibrosword even closer to the quarian's neck than it had been already, causing Rassen to hiss in pain and anger as he once again attempted to rise to his feet. Every muscle in his body screamed at him as he finally succeeded, his vision turning red. The world was spinning so fast now he thought he would be sick at any moment, but Rassen could still see the firearms that continued to point directly at him, the Mandalorians and batarians that surrounded their small group training so many weapons on him that he wouldn't have been able to defend himself against them even at his best, let alone in his current condition. Despite the knowledge that any sign of aggression on his part would result in them opening fire, though, Rassen barely paid them any mind. His attention was completely focused on Shaela.

The vibrosword was practically grazing the surface of the quarian's enviro-suit, meaning that even a slight adjustment of the wrist from Mandalore would be enough to bring it into contact, to cause the wickedly sharp blade to slice through the rubber-like material with no effort whatsoever. Slowly the haze of red began to lift. Rassen's gaze drifted away from the vibrosword and met the visor of its owner.

With the blade so close to Shaela's neck, there was no chance he would be able to get her away from Mandalore before the latter ended her life, and the armoured woman knew it as well as he did. Rassen could almost see the smirk she no doubt wore. She was daring him, daring him to try it anyway, to make even the slightest movement. For once, even using the Force was out of the question.

 _How defeatist of you._

Rassen's eyes widened in horror. Not now. Of all the times for Zaressh's voice to make an appearance, why did it have—

 _I think you should give it a try. After all, where would the harm be in that?_

Against his will, Rassen's vision began turning red again, his anger building once more. Unbidden, the fingers of his right hand began to flex almost imperceptibly. The ground beneath his feet was spinning faster than ever before, the world almost a blur as he continued to look straight into Mandalore's visor, the armoured woman likewise staring back at him. She gave away no indication that she had noticed something abnormal was happening to him, likely still under the assumption that he was struggling with what to do.

His fingers slowly began to move faster, their motion still unnoticeable to anyone else in the cave as Rassen felt his arm try to move from his side to point towards Shaela. Sweat began to run down his face for reasons other than the heat as he struggled with everything he had to prevent the limb from moving from its current position. He had to stop it. He didn't know if he could, but he had to somehow.

As the internal struggle continued, everyone around him seeming as though they were frozen in time as it raged, Rassen felt his control over his arm gradually beginning to slip, the entire limb starting to shake as he continued to fight against Zaressh, or whatever it was in his mind that was masquerading as the Sith. He suddenly realised he could feel Kasumi and Shepard's eyes on him, the two of them having turned their heads to look at him at some point without him noticing. It was then he realised Shaela was looking at him as well.

The quarian currently had her back to him, but she had turned her head to face him as much as she could, looking over her shoulder towards where he stood. Her silver eyes seemed to plead with him as they met his own. His resolve nearly broke in that moment. Shaela was terrified. She knew how close to death she was. He couldn't protect her. For all of his abilities, for everything they had faced together, he still couldn't save her.

Her mouthpiece suddenly turned blue as their gazes remained locked. "Rassen," the quarian said gently, her voice trembling yet somehow remaining strong at the same time, "don't."

That was when realisation hit. Shaela was terrified, but it wasn't because of the threat to her.

It was because of the threat to him.

If he moved, if he acted, then it wouldn't matter that help was on the way, they would both die regardless. Despite the threat to her own life, Shaela was far more horrified by what would happen to him if he tried anything. That for her was just as terrible as her life ending was for him.

Rassen's arm stopped shaking, his fingers stilling soon after as new strength suffused him. He winced as Zaressh's voice tore through his mind, the immense fury it held almost causing him to stagger. Despite the power behind it, though, it somehow seemed quieter than before as his gaze remained locked with Shaela's, as though her presence was counteracting its influence.

 _Use. The. Force!_

There were suddenly footsteps behind him, and Rassen grunted as something smashed into his back, sending him to the ground with a strangled gasp. Looking up with difficulty, he saw Mandalore give a curt nod, causing the Mandalorian responsible to return to their former position in the crowd. Black spots began appearing across his vision, but Rassen ignored them as best he could. Regardless of how much blood he'd lost earlier, he couldn't afford to pass out.

"Rassen!"

At the sound of Shaela calling his name, Rassen looked over at the quarian and tried to reassure her with his eyes that he was fine, not trusting himself to speak as his stomach suddenly began to roil, leaving him feeling as though he might be sick. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Shepard and Kasumi attempt to lurch to their feet, only for the Mandalorians and batarians near them to adjust their weapons, forcing the pair to remain where they were. Taking a deep, shuddering breath of scorching air, Rassen swallowed heavily, trying to suppress the nausea he felt.

"You disappoint me, Jedi," Mandalore snarled, causing him to tear his gaze away from Shaela and move it to her. "You clearly care for this one. Is it the compassion your kind claim to have for all life, or is it something more… personal? No matter. She dies, then you, then your hooded friend. If any of you have something to say to her, now is the time."

"That's enough!"

Everyone, even the Mandalorians and batarians watching the proceedings, froze in surprise as a single armoured figure emerged from the crowd to stand a few metres away from Mandalore. Rassen stared at the individual in shock. The Mandalorian was clearly female judging by her voice, but that wasn't what was surprising. No, what left him dumbfounded was that he recognised her.

She was the same Mandalorian from Horizon and Aratoht.

The newcomer paid no attention to him or the others as she faced her leader, standing defiantly despite her obvious fear as she spoke. "There's nothing honourable about this. We came to this galaxy to battle worthy foes, not torment and beat those we defeat!"

The black spots began to expand as he slowly managed to struggle back to his feet. Rassen fought against the darkness that threatened to consume his vision as Mandalore turned to address the other woman, her rage palpable despite the fact it wasn't aimed at him. "Dozens of us are dead because of the commander," she hissed. "The time for honour has passed. He will watch as his friends die before his eyes. Now get back in line."

Rassen's initial shock turned into complete disbelief as the Mandalorian shook her head, refusing to back down despite the anger of her superior. "N-no. This isn't w-what you told me would happen. I won't—"

Mandalore waved a hand in the other woman's direction, cutting her off as two other Mandalorians stepped forward from the crowd and grabbed her by the arms before beginning to drag her away. Despite how much of a struggle it was just to remain standing, Rassen opened his mouth to speak, countless questions on the tip of his tongue as the three Mandalorians vanished into the crowd of similarly armoured figures and batarians. Who was she? Why was she trying to help them despite him threatening her on Horizon? Why did she follow Mandalore if she didn't agree with her methods? He tried to voice those questions, only to let out a groan instead as he nearly collapsed right there and then. It was taking everything he had to remain conscious and on his feet. Even speaking was beyond Rassen as he started to sway slightly in place, his sense of balance beginning to abandon him.

Mandalore turned back to face him before carrying on as though the interruption had never occurred. "Enough time has been wasted," she snarled. "Now, do any of you—"

"You mentioned your plan has changed, but how is this any different from what you were going to do before?" Kasumi blurted out, causing Rassen to look over at her with difficulty. The thief was still on her knees next to Shepard, but she glanced quickly in his direction before returning her attention to Mandalore. Despite how it had been there for only the briefest of moments, Rassen still managed to see the fear in her eyes as their gazes met. Kasumi knew as well as he did that they were running out of time, but she likewise had no other plan than to try and stall for as long as possible.

"If you were going to try and kill us anyway, what difference does doing it this way make?" the thief continued, her shoulders set as Mandalore slowly turned to face her, the latter seemingly trembling with fury beneath her heavy armour.

"It makes all the difference!" Mandalore roared. "After what he did," she pointed at Shepard with her free hand, "death in battle is an honour none of you deserve. He will live with the guilt of not being able to save the rest of you as punishment for his crime."

"What… crime?" Rassen managed, drawing everyone's attention back to him as he painfully sank to his knees despite his best efforts to remain standing. Ignoring the blackness that continued to take up more and more of his vision, he stared directly into Mandalore's visor as he continued. "You must have… must have known you would lose people hunting… hunting Shepard and the… rest of us." He swallowed heavily and took a deep breath before continuing. "Why was blowing them up all at once on Aratoht so… so different from us fighting them in a protracted battle?"

"There was no honour in it, Jedi. All of them would have gladly perished in a true fight with the four of you, but instead he—"

"I what?" Shepard interrupted incredulously. "I ruined your dream of tracking us down and killing us while losing only a few men in the process? I ruined your plan to wipe out the Alliance taskforce? Your plan to kill thousands of innocent men and women like you did on Horizon? You're insane!"

The silence from earlier returned. The only noise Rassen could hear apart from his own ragged breathing was the hum of Mandalore's vibrosword as it hovered next to Shaela's neck. "Perhaps," the armoured woman replied, voice barely a whisper. "But that won't save your friends, Commander. Know that you carry as much blame for their deaths as I do."

"You keep… keep mentioning honour," Rassen said quickly, stalling for time as his eyes locked onto the tip of the vibrosword as it began to move closer to Shaela, feeling a sense of relief as its progress halted at his words. "Yet you have never shown anything resembling it. If it truly is so important to you, prove it."

"And what would you suggest, Jedi?" Mandalore sneered. "A one on one duel? You can't even stand, and the rest of you no doubt have little skill with a blade. As surprising as it was to see that this one," she inclined her head slightly towards Shaela, "has a lightsaber now, she didn't on Aratoht. And as I have said, I no longer have an interest in giving any of you an end through fair combat."

She suddenly grabbed onto the top of Shaela's helmet with her free hand, drawing a gasp of shock from the quarian. "This is your final chance. Do any of you have anything to say to her?"

Even though his vision had by now turned almost completely black, Rassen still managed to slowly extend a hand towards Shaela. He had no choice now; he had to take the risk. She would die for sure if he couldn't pull her away from the woman who had her at sword-point. As he tried to focus, his heart seemed to stop in his chest as Zaressh's voice returned without warning, its tone gleeful.

 _I've changed my mind._

Rassen's eyes widened in horror as nothing happened. He could still feel the Force, but the ability to use it was somehow just out of his reach. It was as though the Force was a reservoir and a dam separated him from it, the barrier solid and immovable. He desperately tried to break through the mental block, what little remained of his vision turning red again despite the near overwhelming blackness as he strained with the little strength he had.

 _Having difficulty, Rassen?_

As had been the case earlier, Rassen didn't hear the initial command, but he certainly felt the result of it as an armoured boot slammed into his back without warning, sending him forward and then pinning him flat against the ground on his front, causing the taste of blood to fill his mouth as the side of his face collided with the hard rock beneath him. Looking up painfully, he saw both Shepard and Kasumi try to move to help him and Shaela, only for the Mandalorians and batarians who had them at gunpoint to adjust their hold on their weapons, causing the pair to freeze.

Swallowing heavily, Rassen slowly moved his gaze over to Shaela to find her staring back at him. The fear in her eyes was gone, sad acceptance having replaced it now. There was a flash of movement as Mandalore raised her vibrosword high into the air and began to bring it down towards the quarian's neck. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Rassen opened his mouth to tell Shaela he was sorry, only for his eyes to notice a flicker of blue next to one of the batarian ships outside the cave.

He stared in shock as the flash of colour reappeared a split-second later. There was someone down there, but the shade of blue they wore was too dark to belong to a suit of Mandalorian armour. That left only one possibility that he could think of, but he and the others would have heard it if the Alliance shuttles had arrived, so who—

A faint booming noise came from the direction of the unknown individual, the sound like a distant thunderclap. Mandalore staggered, dropping her vibrosword mid-swing before looking down at the patch of red that was now quickly growing across the left side of her body. Rassen stared as uncomprehendingly at the blood as she did as the armoured woman turned to face the direction the shot had come from.

"How?" she managed, her voice little more than a wheeze. "Should have… heard them arrive."

A second shot sounded, the projectile responsible for the noise smashing into Mandalore's shoulder and sending her to the ground. Rassen watched her fall. So did everyone else in the cave. For a moment, no one moved.

Then all hell broke loose.


	31. Chapter 31

**A/N: Well, here's another chapter, finally. Again, sorry about the delay. I'm still finding it hard to focus for some reason, but I've also started working full-time, which means I haven't had as many opportunities to write over the last few months as I would have liked. This chapter is longer than average, though, so there's that at least.**

 **Responses to reviews are as follows:**

 **AnarionRising27: You're very welcome, and it's great to have another chapter out!**

 **Guest: Interesting. That makes sense as Jedi are far more likely to make sacrifices than Sith are after all.**

 **seabo76: Who knows the answer to any of those questions? Well, I do, but I'm not saying anything!**

 **6tailedninja: Hey, that's great to hear! I'm glad you've enjoyed it so far, but what have you liked the most, out of interest?**

 **Chapter 31: Chaos**

At first she hadn't understood what was happening.

For a few seconds, Shaela had been convinced she was going to die. Mandalore had stood over her, and she had felt what was coming. Not seen, _felt_. Her eyes had never left Rassen's during that moment, but she had sensed the incoming blow, the Force issuing a futile warning. Even with it on her side, though, she had known she wouldn't be able to act in any meaningful way, not in time.

And then Rassen had stopped looking at her.

For a split-second Shaela had wondered if it was because he couldn't bear to see what was about to happen, but then she had heard it, a faint boom in the distance. A clattering noise of metal against rock had caused her to flinch, her eyes moving away from Rassen before landing on the weapon that had been about to end her life. She had stared at it in disbelief for what had felt like an age, unable to understand why the woman above her had suddenly decided to show mercy.

Mandalore had then said something, but while she had been able to make out the individual words, Shaela had been unable to make sense of them as a whole, her mind seemingly running at half its normal speed as a second, identical booming noise followed the first one. It was only when Mandalore had collapsed before the astonished quarian a second later, allowing her to see past where the armoured woman had been standing, that Shaela had realised what the sound was. The sight of something blue down at the base of the slope that led up to the cave had caused all of the pieces to click. Someone, it had to have been a Systems Alliance soldier, had just saved her life, and Rassen must have seen them just before they had acted.

As Shaela remained kneeling in place, her mind reeling as it sank in that she was somehow still alive, more shots suddenly began to sound from the same direction as the first two, multiple cries of pain causing her to turn around to see a number of batarians and Mandalorians collapse as they were hit. Shouts started to fill the cave as the roar of approaching shuttles suddenly drowned out the distant sniper fire. Dozens of blasters and mass accelerator weapons began to open up on the base of the slope, those within the cave firing wildly at their attackers. With such a deafening cacophony of sound all around her, Shaela couldn't hope to make sense of all of it. Nonetheless, she still managed to make out some of what the people nearest to her were bellowing.

"Unknown number of assailants. Take defensive positions!"

"More of them are deploying from those shuttles!"

"Squad to me! Shoot to kill!"

Some of the Mandalorians and batarians began to surge towards the cave's entrance, determined to take shelter behind the large rocks just before it. Others chose to drop down where they were, minimising the size of the target they represented as they tried to crawl towards the nearest available piece of cover. With so many bodies moving in all directions, more than a few individuals were knocked off their feet, only to be trampled by their comrades. Despite how most chose to at least try and do something to increase their chances of survival, a few simply stood still, trying to process what was happening as utter confusion reigned. The result was total chaos, the threat posed by those outside the cave having taken full priority as far as the hundreds of Mandalorians and batarians were concerned.

Knowing she could be remembered at any moment, Shaela cursed as she suddenly realised that she had been watching her surroundings in awe without moving. The quarian hurriedly pushed herself to her feet as quickly as she could, only to let out a cry of shock as a batarian slammed into her shoulder without warning, the impact knocking her out of his way and causing her to stagger as he barrelled past. The man vanished from sight a second later; it was entirely possible he hadn't even noticed her.

Regaining her balance and side-stepping a Mandalorian before he too could crash into her, Shaela turned towards where she had last seen Rassen, desperately trying to peer through the crowd as she began to run deeper into the cave. Another batarian let out a startled exclamation and tried to stop her, only for Shaela to dodge his attempts to grab onto her arm as she ducked past him.

"Rassen!" she screamed as loudly as she could, nearly falling over as someone else clipped her before she recovered. "Rassen!"

There was a sudden break in the mass of bodies before her. Shaela darted through the gap, only to come to a halt as a hand seized her by the wrist and pulled sharply. Caught off-balance, she wasn't able to stop herself from staggering towards the person responsible and turning to face them.

Raising a hand and allowing the Force to flow through her body, she prepared to send her attacker hurtling backwards, only to freeze as she saw who it was.

His skin was pale, much too pale to be healthy. A slight trickle of blood ran from one side of his mouth. It looked as though merely standing was taking an immense toll on him. Even after Zaressh had almost killed him back on Omega all those years ago, even during the final confrontation with the Sith on Querra, he had looked better than he did now. In short, Rassen looked terrible.

And she had never wanted to kiss him more.

It could only have been a second or so in reality, but what seemed like an eternity passed as they stood opposite one another, the human still holding onto her wrist as dozens of bodies continued to move and collide all around them. Shaela opened her mouth to speak, to ask him how badly he was hurt, but nothing came out as the droning sound of the shuttles cut out abruptly, jarring her out of the moment. For his part, Rassen reacted by releasing her wrist, only to take her hand as he managed a few words despite his condition.

"We… need to find Shepard and Kasumi."

That brought her fully back to reality. Even with the distraction caused by the arrival of what sounded like a small army of Alliance soldiers, it was a miracle the two of them hadn't been shot yet. They had to find the others before it was too late for all four of them.

A familiar electronic crashing noise suddenly came from behind her, causing Shaela to whip round, her eyes widening at the sight of a Mandalorian standing only a few metres away from her, his blaster rifle braced against his shoulder. Before she could so much as blink, the armoured warrior collapsed to the rocky ground, the air next to where he had just been standing flickering as Kasumi uncloaked. The thief was breathing heavily, a gash along her right forearm clearly causing her considerable pain judging from her strained expression as blood dripped from the injured limb.

"Follow me," Kasumi panted, gesturing for them to do so with her good arm as she began to sprint towards a cluster of boulders that stood just before the nearest wall of the cave, perhaps twenty metres away from their current position. Each one of the rocks was at least several feet tall and a few times wider than a person, and they formed a rough semi-circle from the point of view of someone standing where they were.

Knowing their only chance was to get to the formation as quickly as possible, Shaela began to run after Kasumi as fast as she could, Rassen limping alongside her, his face tight with pain as she continued to hold his hand. Glancing over at the Jedi Knight worriedly as he suddenly stumbled in his exhaustion, the quarian's heart then stopped as a nearby batarian turned to face them without warning, levelling a shotgun at Rassen's back and grinning manically as he prepared to open fire.

 _No, no, no, no…_

Reaching out to the Force desperately, Shaela threw an arm in the batarian's direction, sending him sailing backwards through the air like a ragdoll just as he pulled the trigger of his weapon, the shot missing its intended target by inches. Rassen twisted around at the sound, the action consuming the last of his energy as his knees began to sag, the Jedi Knight threatening to collapse right there and then.

"Don't stop!" Shaela screamed, throwing one of the human's arms over her shoulders and wincing at his weight as she began to help him the last few yards to their destination. "Come on, Rassen! We're almost there!"

As they resumed their struggle towards the rock formation, Kasumi suddenly emerged from it and raced over to them, positioning herself on Rassen's other side and grabbing onto his free arm. Shaela felt her shoulders practically sigh with relief as the thief shouldered some of Rassen's weight herself, the two of them practically carrying the man between them the last few metres to the cluster of boulders before lowering him down behind the nearest one once they had reached it. Sweat ran down Shaela's face as she knelt down next to Rassen, her heart stopping again as she saw he had passed out.

"How bad is he?"

The quarian looked over to her left to find Shepard taking cover behind the boulder next to the one she, Kasumi, and Rassen were currently using. The commander was in the process of slotting a heat sink into a batarian assault rifle he had acquired from somewhere, but he stopped to glance at her for an answer, his expression calm despite the gunfire that continued to echo all around them. Activating her omni-tool, its familiar orange light slightly comforting despite the battle occurring nearby, she ran it up and down Rassen's barely moving form for a few seconds. The diagnosis the device gave her caused her to swallow heavily.

"He…" she trailed off, swallowing again before continuing. "He's…"

A gloved hand landed on her shoulder. "He's going to be all right," Kasumi promised, causing Shaela to look over at her to find that the thief must have treated her arm before helping her with Rassen, given that it was no longer bleeding. "I know he looks pretty bad, but he's tough, Shaela. He's going to be fine."

* * *

As Kasumi continued to reassure Shaela, Shepard carefully rose to his feet before looking in the direction the two women and Rassen had come from, rifle at the ready as he prepared to cut down the Mandalorians and batatians who had no doubt noticed them during their headlong rush to the cluster of boulders that now concealed them from view. Staring in utter disbelief for a moment as he saw that somehow, impossibly, no one was approaching their current position, understanding then dawned as he noticed several bodies, both batarian and Mandalorian, lying nearby. Judging by how each of them looked to have been killed by a single shot, it was clearly the work of the same Alliance sharpshooters who had saved Shaela earlier, though their distant firing could no longer be heard due to the other noises that were now echoing through the cave.

Placing one hand on the boulder in front of him to steady himself, Shepard turned to look in the direction of the cave's entrance. Although he had to squint to do so, he could just make out that hundreds of specks of blue were descending the sheer walls of the valley, their colour contrasting just enough with the green of the rock to be visible. For a moment he didn't realise what they were, understanding only dawning when he noticed the much larger shapes of the shuttles that had landed above them. Each speck was a marine, and they were abseiling down the valley walls, their numbers noticeably greater than those of the Mandalorians and batarians. Even as he watched, the first few dark blue armoured men and women reached the floor of the valley and began to advance towards the cave, which caused him to frown in confusion.

 _Wait. If they're only just getting into the fight, then who's been helping us?_

Raising the assault rifle he had obtained from a batarian while Kasumi had been retrieving Rassen and Shaela to eye level, Shepard looked down its scope. While far less powerful than the kind found on even the most basic of sniper rifles, it still provided a substantial degree of magnification, meaning that as he manoeuvred it towards where the long-range fire had to be coming from, Shepard could make out the more distinct features of those at the base of the slope, despite the distance that separated him from them when he centred them in his crosshairs.

As his gaze moved over the first few individuals, it became apparent that a small number of marines must have been sent ahead of the main force, likely to do some reconnaissance before the rest of it arrived, although they had obviously intervened when Mandalore had been about to kill Shaela. All of the marines were equipped with sniper rifles, which hardly came as a surprise. Even so, Shepard couldn't help but feel a sense of astonishment at how accurate they had been so far, given that none of the Mandalorians and batarians who had attempted to reach him and the others had succeeded.

As he continued to move the assault rifle along the line of marines, he suddenly froze in surprise, a grin then overtaking his features as it abruptly became clear why so much of the sniper fire had been so precise.

 _Of course_ , Shepard thought, unable to keep himself from laughing quietly. _Of course._

Directly in the middle of his scope stood an instantly recognisable figure. Considerably taller than any of the humans around them, they wore a heavy suit of armour coloured a mixture of dark blue and grey. A blue facial tattoo, coupled with the ever-present eyepiece they wore and the fact one side of their face was heavily scarred, meant that Shepard would have recognised them anywhere in the galaxy. Anywhere in any galaxy, in fact.

The hairs on the back of his neck suddenly stood up, and Shepard ducked back down behind the boulder, cursing himself for having left himself exposed for so long as a batarian opened fire in his direction, their assault rifle peppering the other side of the rock and blasting fragments of it into the air. That was a basic mistake that got plenty of inexperienced soldiers killed; they let themselves get distracted, didn't keep their head down, and so never saw the enemy combatant who was aiming at them until it was far too late.

"John!"

He turned and waved a hand in Kasumi's direction, causing the thief to remain where she was instead of rushing to his side as she had been about to. "I'm fine!" he shouted above the sounds of battle that continued to rage all around them. "I've got this."

Gesturing again for Kasumi to hold position, he silently counted to three before straightening up out of cover and centring the batarian in his crosshairs. Dropping the four-eyed alien with a single quick burst, Shepard ducked back down before anyone else could see him. After taking a moment to make sure that it was indeed the case that none of the other enemy combatants in the cave had seen him shoot one of their number, their attention still very much focused on the Alliance forces outside, he turned back to Kasumi, allowing himself to release a small sigh of relief.

"Most of the marines are still getting into position, but they'll be here soon. We just need to hold out for a bit longer." He shook his head, unable to hold back a smile. "They've brought our favourite turian with them."

"What?" Kasumi asked incredulously, her amber eyes wide beneath her hood. "Garrus is down there? Are any of the others with him?"

Shepard shook his head again, debating internally for a moment whether or not to take another look before deciding it wasn't worth the risk. "I don't think so," he replied, checking the remaining capacity of his weapon's heat sink as Kasumi nodded slowly in response. It was a rather pointless act, really. He already knew the heat sink was still almost entirely empty, but years of training and frontline combat experience had drilled the need to inspect his weapons every chance he got into him so well that he did it instinctively regardless. It was probably just as well, if he were honest, since that was another basic mistake that got young soldiers killed; they went to pull the trigger of their weapon, only to realise too late that it wouldn't fire for whatever reason. More often than not, it was because their current heat sink was at full capacity and needed replacing.

Looking back at Kasumi once he had finished, Shepard then followed the thief's gaze as she turned to watch Shaela as the quarian began to apply medi-gel to the still unconscious fourth member of their group. With Rassen down, that left just the three of them, and they only had the rifle he himself held, Kasumi's stealth abilities, and Shaela's knowledge of the Force with which to defend themselves. They badly needed their weapons back, which meant one of them would have to leave the relative safety of their current position to go and retrieve their equipment. Shepard would have already tried himself, if not for the fact that he hadn't seen where the Mandalorians and batarians had taken their possessions.

But he knew someone who almost certainly had.

"Kasumi," he began, causing her to look away from Rassen and Shaela and back at him as he tried to make himself heard above the constant sounds of fighting. "We need to get our equipment back before the Mandalorians and batarians organise themselves enough to try and look for us properly. Did you see—"

"Yes."

Shepard nodded, feeling a sense of relief wash over him. "Great… where exactly?"

"They took them…" Kasumi trailed off, causing him to swear internally as her eyes narrowed in understanding. "You can't go out there, Shep," the thief stated firmly. "We barely made it here without getting shot in the process. I'll go."

"No way," he retorted, closing the gap between them and grabbing onto Kasumi's arm as she began to stand, leaving her staring at him in surprise. "I'm the one who's going. Now, where—"

The thief pulled her arm free so she could cross it along with her other one. "I have my cloak," she countered. "The moment you go out there, Shep, you're a target. I can move from cover to cover without being noticed and you can't." Obviously sensing he was going to try again to dissuade her, Kasumi vanished from sight before he could. Shepard swallowed slightly, only to freeze as he felt a pair of lips press against his cheek for the briefest of moments. Reaching out to where Kasumi had to be standing, his hand met only empty air. She had already gone.

Realising after a few seconds that he had begun to stare into space, Shepard shook himself out of his thoughts. Kasumi could look after herself, and she was more than capable of avoiding the attention of everyone else in the cave. In contrast, people tended to see him coming from a great deal further away, which meant going after the thief would only place her in more danger. The best thing he could do right now was make sure he, Rassen, and Shaela survived long enough for Kasumi to return with their weapons.

Straightening up to his full height for the briefest of moments so he could make sure no one was approaching their location, Shepard then ducked back down before moving over to join Shaela, crouching in place as the quarian deactivated her omni-tool and turned to give him a worried look.

"Any improvement?" he asked gently, quickly examining the unconscious Jedi for himself as he waited for a reply. Rassen didn't have any external injuries that looked life-threatening as far as he could tell, but the younger man had been beaten badly enough that he could very easily have major internal damage, which of course couldn't be spotted with the naked eye.

"A little," Shaela murmured, causing him to lean closer so he could hear her clearly over the sounds of battle that continued to rage through the cave. "I still can't do anything about the blood he lost, and that's by far the biggest problem. I told him to stay on the ship, but he just wouldn't listen."

"Even if he had, they still would've captured him."

"I know." Shaela ran a hand down the front of her mask before continuing. "It's just… I've seen him get injured before. Back on Omega, I mean. And it… it hurt to see him like that. Now, though, with Watchman and now this…" She trailed off, looking away before speaking so quietly that Shepard barely heard her.

"It's worse."

"It's never easy when someone you care about suffers," he replied, reaching out to place a hand on the quarian's shoulder and squeezing gently. Shaela nodded slowly, but still didn't look at him as he spoke again. "But that's the price we all pay for having people who are special in our lives. They make life better, more worth living, but they also make it easier for us to hurt, particularly when it comes to those we love. At the end of the day, I don't think any of us would prefer to be alone, though."

Now Shaela did look at him, her silver eyes wide behind her light blue mask. "No," she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. "I don't think we would."

Nodding firmly, Shepard opened his mouth to reassure her, as Kasumi had, that Rassen would be fine, only for the deafening sound of hundreds of different weapons firing all around them to somehow get even louder than it already was, the cacophony now so great that he instinctively placed his hands over his ears to protect them. Wincing as his eardrums felt as though they might burst, Shepard began to stand up, determined to find out what the cause was, only to pause as he glanced above him.

Countless pinpricks of bright blue light were racing through the air above their position, the fact they were only just visible and the intensity of their colour revealing them to be mass accelerator fire. Judging by how frequently the deadly projectiles were soaring past, the marines had seemingly started to assault the cave head on, presumably having tired of trying to pick off their enemies from long range.

Shepard understood the change in approach. A drawn-out battle only favoured the Mandalorians and batarians, who had far more cover available to them than that which was present between the Alliance troops and their objective. Whoever was in command of the marines had made the decision to end the engagement as fast as possible, which meant suppressing the batarians and Mandalorians with as much firepower as they could as the Alliance detachment advanced at speed. If leaving cover had been dangerous before, it was practically suicide now.

A wave of fear washed over him as he realised Kasumi was still retrieving their weapons, before Shepard forced himself to try and think logically. He couldn't do anything to help her right now, and she was just as invisible to the marines as she was to the Mandalorians and batarians, meaning their rescuers wouldn't mistake her for an enemy target. As much as he hated to admit it, the thief would have to fend for herself.

* * *

As he squeezed the trigger of his Mantis, the recoil of the shot being absorbed through his shoulder, Garrus allowed himself a wry smile. The heavily armoured man who had been his target had taken cover behind a large rock just inside the cave, but unfortunately for him, the turian's expert positioning had rendered the mass of stone completely redundant. Even so, the shot hadn't been easy; whatever it was that the strange armour the man and his comrades wore was made from, it was astonishingly tough to the point that it had taken two direct hits for Garrus to down the first of them he had aimed at. As a result of him having only a finite supply of heat sinks, he had been given no real option but to aim for where the armour was thinner—in the case of his most recent target he had chosen to go for the neck. At the distance he currently was from the cave, most would have struggled to make such a shot, but then Garrus had always prided himself on his ability with the weapon he held.

Ejecting the now spent heat sink from his rifle, the turian slipped a fresh one into the weapon before looking back down its scope. Most of the marines were currently advancing up the stretch of ground that led to the cave at a decent pace, but they were taking heavy losses doing so. Despite the disorder the batarians and their allies were experiencing, the latter's armour, combined with the bizarre guns they carried which seemed to ignore kinetic barriers completely, meant the firefight was dragging on for longer than had been expected. Add to that the fact there was no real cover to speak of immediately outside the cave and plenty within it and the situation was far from ideal.

Despite the mounting losses the Alliance troops were suffering, though, Garrus knew they had to persist with the frontal assault. Given Hackett had total air superiority, he had briefly considered asking the admiral before they had deployed about whether a bombing run against the cave might be possible. Garrus had barely opened his mouth, though, before realising that such a course of action could very easily harm Shepard and Kasumi, given their exact location within the cave was unknown, which no doubt was why Hackett hadn't ordered one already. No, despite the number of people who were dying, they had no choice but to continue as they were.

Locating a new target after a few moments of scanning the rock formations within the cave, Garrus centred the batarian in his crosshairs and fired, the force of the shot knocking the woman off her feet as it slammed into her stomach, killing her instantly. Despite the number of marines who lay dead between where he was crouched and the objective, the ground around them a murky brown colour on account of the blood that had escaped from their bodies covering the green stone on which they lay, Garrus could tell they were winning. Even though progress was slow, the amount of fire that came from the cave was gradually decreasing. On top of that, the marines who had advanced the furthest were now more than halfway up the slope, covering each other as best they could despite the lack of natural protection as they struggled on.

He hadn't managed to spot either Shepard or Kasumi for a while, but that was hardly surprising. Given they were still surrounded by enemies, the best thing they could do was keep their heads down as much as possible, as abandoning cover would leave them exposed to hostile and even friendly fire. Garrus was still doing his best to neutralise anyone who ventured too close to where he thought they were, but for all he knew they had moved to a different position at some point without him noticing. Not knowing if they were all right was eating away at him, but the way he saw it, the quicker he fired his rifle, the faster the fighting would be over, and the less chance there was either of them would get hurt.

Replacing his heat sink again, Garrus began to look for another target.

* * *

"Shaela?"

Shaking herself out of her thoughts as Rassen's voice reached her despite the gunfire that continued to rage nearby, Shaela turned her attention to the man next to her to see he had just come to. Despite his condition, the human's eyes were wide, and both of his hands were pressed firmly over his ears, the sheer volume of the noise within the cave clearly having left him completely disoriented. Reaching out and gently pushing the Jedi Knight back down as he abruptly tried to get up, Shaela then took one of his hands in her own and squeezed it reassuringly, causing him to relax slightly.

"Rassen," she smiled, knowing he could see the expression she wore despite her mask. "We're okay for the moment. Don't try to move."

"What…" Rassen swallowed painfully, the action clearly extremely unpleasant as his eyes began to close despite the battle occurring practically on top of them. Inwardly, Shaela cursed the heat. After everything that had happened since they had been captured, she felt parched, and her enviro-suit protected her at least somewhat from Venture's brutal temperatures. She could only imagine how much worse it was for the human, especially considering the amount of blood he had lost.

"You haven't been out for long," she explained quickly. "We're just staying here for the moment and trying to avoid attracting attention, if we can. Kasumi has gone to find her and Shepard's guns as well as our lightsabers. The Alliance is still attacking, and we just need to hang on for a little bit longer until they reach us."

Rassen nodded slowly to signal his understanding, clearly finding the action easier than speaking. Her smile wavering as it sank in just how weak he currently was, Shaela released his hand before carefully embracing the human, gently pressing her mask into his shoulder as she held him. They were going to make it, she promised herself silently. They were going to make it off Venture, even after everything the planet had thrown at them.

"What? Kasumi, slow down."

Swallowing heavily as a sense of dread washed over her, Shaela lifted her head from Rassen's shoulder and looked over at Shepard to find him speaking into his omni-tool, the commander's voice under control but still possessing an undeniable hint of fear as he addressed the fourth member of their group. She didn't hear what the thief said in response, but the way the colour drained from Shepard's face told her all she needed to know. Something was wrong.

As if sensing that she was staring at him, the commander looked over at her and Rassen for a moment, seemingly debating something internally before he turned his attention back to the device on his wrist.

"Understood, avoid them for as long as you can." Shepard deactivated his omni-tool before looking back over at her. "Kasumi managed to get our equipment, but—"

"She needs help," Shaela finished quickly. "You have to go. We'll be all right."

"You're not even armed. If anyone finds you…"

She nodded once. "I know, but I have the Force and that will have to be enough. Go before it's too late."

Shepard nodded back slowly, his reluctance obvious as he straightened up from where he had been crouching and glanced between her and Rassen. For a moment he looked as though he was about to say something, only to nod to her again before turning away and breaking into a sprint. Almost as soon as he left the safety of the rock formation, Shaela lost sight of him, the chaos that lay beyond swallowing the commander in moments.

Looking back down at Rassen, who was struggling to stay awake despite the deafening barrage of noise they were being subjected to, Shaela was suddenly aware that their situation was truly beyond dangerous now. Even if he managed to stop himself from slipping back into unconsciousness, Rassen still couldn't fight in his current state. She could, but she knew her ability to use the Force was still comparatively limited compared with his. While it was true she could throw objects and people, she couldn't do much more than that aside from heal the slightest of injuries.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Shaela closed her eyes as she tried to come up with a plan. As the central part of the semi-circle the boulders formed stuck out towards the middle of the cave, both sides curving backwards away from the centre of the vast natural room, and given how tall the rocks were, anyone who approached would have to go round to either the left or the right before they could see her and Rassen. They would then have to look almost directly down at their own feet before they would spot the two of them. That meant she would have a split-second to act before she and Rassen were seen, and would have to hit whoever found them as hard as she could with the Force. It wasn't much of a plan if Shaela were honest, but it was all she had.

Opening her eyes and glancing over at Rassen, the quarian forced herself to remain calm as she saw he had passed out. That he had even come to in the first place was a minor miracle, so it was no surprise he had lost consciousness again despite the sheer number of weapons firing nearby.

Frowning as she suddenly realised that while the barrage of noise was still hard to bear it was definitely slightly less intense than it had been just a few moments earlier, Shaela crept over to the far left of the rock formation. Leaning around the edge of her cover as much as she dared, the quarian stared in awe at the sheer number of bodies that lay strewn around the cave. The remaining Mandalorians and batarians were still fighting furiously, but their numbers were starting to run out, something that only seemed to be spurring them on as she saw that none of them looked even close to dropping their weapons. Ducking back before anyone saw her, Shaela let out a long exhale.

 _It's almost over. It's almost over._

The barely audible sound of footsteps approaching from her left caused her blood to run cold. Ignoring her fear as best she could, the quarian reached out to the Force, allowing its warmth to flow through her as she waited, staying completely still as she did so, for whoever it was to get closer. Sweat began to run down her face behind her mask as the footsteps grew louder to the point their owner had to be practically on top of her and Rassen. Taking a deep breath, Shaela whipped round and snapped a hand flat in front of her, preparing to send the newcomer flying, only to stop as she realised that they had to be standing right next to her by now and so she should have been able to see them.

Shaela felt a sense of profound relief wash over her. "Kasumi," she managed breathlessly. "Keelah, you had me worried there for a moment." Laughing shakily to herself, it was only after a few seconds had passed that she realised Shepard was nowhere to be seen. With mounting horror, it then sank in that while Kasumi was always utterly silent when she turned invisible, she had heard whoever this was approach.

Shaela desperately tried to reach out to the Force again, but she was still far too slow as the person next to her shimmered into existence before viciously smashing an armoured fist directly into the centre of her mask. The world tumbled end over end as the sheer power of the blow sent the quarian crashing awkwardly to the ground several feet away from where she had just been crouching, the material of her enviro-suit providing no protection as her back slammed against the floor of the cave, though her helmet did at least prevent her from cracking her skull open on the unyielding rock. Knowing she only had a split-second before her assailant would attack her again, Shaela once more tried to call on the Force, only for her concentration to utterly disintegrate, a sense of terror worse than any she had experienced before leaving her paralysed as she saw the tiny crack that had appeared directly in the middle of her visor.

"I've heard a lot about your people," her attacker taunted, causing Shaela's heart to stop as she recognised their voice. Laughing cruelly, Mandalore began to walk towards her, seemingly uncaring of the fact that half of her formally blue armour was now dyed a dark red with her own blood as she stepped over Rassen's unconscious form without paying the Jedi Knight any attention.

The armoured woman was hunched over slightly as a result of her injuries, but the fact she was somehow, impossibly, on her feet left Shaela staring in disbelief as she reached where the quarian lay on the ground. Realising her mistake too late, Shaela kicked out at Mandalore with everything she had, trying to strike the other woman in the centre of her torso as she loomed above her, only for her attacker to catch her leg easily by the ankle. Gritting her teeth with the effort as she tried to pull her limb free from Mandalore's vice-like grip, Shaela didn't see the boot coming until it crashed against her mask, the armoured woman stamping down onto the quarian's helmet with everything she had.

The tiny crack instantly expanded into a vast spider web pattern, each of the thin white lines visible as they contrasted with the mask's light blue material. Shaela's vision swam as the back of her helmet smashed against the rock beneath her, but she still saw that Mandalore was already beginning to raise her boot into the air again. "As I was saying," the armoured woman continued, "I've heard that if you're exposed to unfiltered air, the results aren't pretty. I hope you don't mind if I indulge my curiosity a little."

Shaela tried to kick out with her free leg, but she couldn't get any strength behind the blow in her current position, meaning the attack simply glanced off Mandalore's breastplate. The quarian tried yet again to call upon the Force, but the use of it was beyond her as her fear obliterated her ability to concentrate once more. Shaela's eyes then fell on the prone figure that lay only a few feet away, a tiny spark of hope igniting in her chest. "Rassen!" she screamed. "Rassen, wake up! Please wake up!"

The human didn't so much as shift, causing Mandalore to laugh as she spared a brief glance in the Jedi Knight's direction. Beginning to hyperventilate, Shaela slowly looked up, her gaze meeting the armoured woman's despite the fact both their faces were concealed from one another. She knew there was no chance of mercy, but instinct drove her to try for it anyway.

"Please," Shaela whispered. "Not this. Anything but this."

The woman above her leaned in slightly, and for a moment it seemed as though she was actually considering the quarian's words. For a few seconds nothing happened, but then Mandalore spoke, her voice filled with savage joy as she stamped down one last time.

"Too bad."

As her mask exploded inwards, Shaela screamed.


End file.
